SEC questioned Elon Musk as he tweeted his Twitter deal concerns

A new regulatory filing shows that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission raised questions about Elon Musk's commitment to his $44B acquisition of Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) $Twitter(TWTR)$almost two months before Musk said he was scuttling the deal.

The Thursday filing includes a letter dated June 7 and signed by attorney Mike Ringler, who is a partner in the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firm that is representing Musk in his dispute with Twitter (TWTR). In the letter, Ringler responded to questions that the SEC had about a tweet Musk made about the Twitter (TWTR) deal back on May 17. The SEC said Musk tweeted, "[t]his deal cannot move forward," and that doing so, "suggests Mr. Musk and his affiliates are exercising a legal right under the terms of the merger agreement to suspend completion of the acquisition of Twitter or otherwise do not intend to complete the acquisition." The SEC then said Musk didn't make any amendments to his filings to reflect "material changes" regarding facts or opinions about the proposed deal.

However, Ringler responded to the SEC by saying that Musk believed his tweets and posts about spam and fake accounts on Twitter (TWTR) "triggered any required amendment" to his previous filing on the deal.

"Despite Mr. Musk’s desire to obtain information to evaluate the potential spam and fake accounts, there was no material change to Mr. Musk’s plans and proposals regarding the proposed transaction at such time," Ringler wrote.

Ringler added that Musk would "continue to be mindful of the requirements" under schedule filing rules and that he would make any amendments "to reflect any material changes in the facts set forth therin."

Of course, any possible good feelings that may have existed between Musk and Twitter (TWTR) evaporated when Musk said on July 8 that he was terminating his deal to acquire the company due to the matter of bots and spam accounts on the social-media platform. Twitter (TWTR) then responded on Tuesday by suing Musk in an effort to hold him to his acquisition agreement.