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Elon Musk fights back against the S.E.C.

The Tesla C.E.O. responded to the accusation that he violated a fraud settlement with the S.E.C. by declaring that the regulator was trying to muzzle him.

The S.E.C. asked for Mr. Musk to be held in contempt of court over a tweet about Tesla production volumes, which it says infringed a settlement that put limitations on his social-media use. Tesla conceded that lawyers didn’t review the tweet before it was sent.

That response “smacks of retaliation and censorship,” Tesla’s lawyers argue. They say the regulator is asking a court “to trample on” Mr. Musk’s First Amendment rights, perhaps because it’s embarrassed by criticism. And they contend that Mr. Musk has cut his Tesla-related tweeting by nearly half.

They also say the tweet was innocuous, “simply Musk’s shorthand gloss on and entirely consistent with prior public disclosures detailing Tesla’s anticipated production volume.”