Elon Musk’s request to scrap a settlement with US securities regulators over 2018 tweets claiming he had the funding to take Tesla private has been denied by a federal judge in New York.

Judge Lewis Liman also denied a motion to nullify subpoenas of Mr Musk seeking information about possible violations of his settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Mr Musk had asked the court to throw out the settlement, which required that his tweets be approved by a Tesla lawyer.

The SEC is investigating whether the Tesla chief executive violated the settlement with tweets last November asking Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock.

The whole dispute stems from an October 2018 agreement with the SEC in which Mr Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay 20 million dollars (£15.9 million) in civil fines over Mr Musk’s tweets about having the money to take Tesla private at 420 dollars per share.

The funding was far from secured and the electric vehicle company remains public, but Tesla’s stock price jumped.

The settlement specified governance changes, including Mr Musk’s ousting as board chairman, as well as pre-approval of his tweets.

Musk lawyer Alex Spiro contended in court motions that the SEC was trampling on Mr Musk’s right to free speech.