While Judge Kathaleen McCormick allowed the Tesla boss's team an opening to bolster its argument that Musk was misled, she chastised them for "absurdly broad" requests for "trillions upon trillions of data points."

The judge ordered Twitter to hand over data on 9,000 accounts the firm audited at the end of 2021, which opens the door for that information to be used in Musk's effort to quit the $44 billion deal.

"Some additional data from plaintiff (Twitter) seems warranted," McCormick wrote, without elaborating, in her four-page ruling.

Musk has argued Twitter was dishonest on the number of false or spam accounts, prompting strong denials and a lawsuit from the social media firm that has led to a trial set for mid-October.

Musk's lawyers pushed hard in a hearing Wednesday to force the firm to turn over mountains of information, while seizing upon a freshly revealed Twitter whistleblower's claims of serious flaws inside the company.