Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has cut ties with his law firm because it refused to fire a lawyer involved in an SEC investigation, according to a report

Elon Musk’s Tesla has been replacing Cooley LLP attorneys or hiring other lawyers on multiple matters since December, according to The Wall Street Journal, after the law firm refused to discharge a lawyer who previously worked at the US Securities and Exchange Commission on an investigation of Musk.

According to The Journal, Musk was interrogated by Cooley in the SEC’s probe into the Tesla CEO’s 2018 assertion that he had received money to take Tesla private.

The SEC, Musk, and Tesla reached an agreement in which the CEO and electric vehicle firm each paid a $20 million fine and Musk temporarily stepped down as CEO as a result of the inquiry.

According to The Journal, a Tesla lawyer asked Cooley to fire the former SEC attorney late last year, but the law firm refused.

A person familiar with the situation told The Journal that Musk’s Space X rocket company no longer works with Cooley on regulatory matters.

Tesla has recently been challenged by a number of regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration initiated an inquiry in December into 580,000 Tesla Models 3,S,X, and Y vehicles produced between 2017 and 2022 that have front touchscreens that let drivers to play games while driving.

The government opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot automated driving system in August of last year. Since January 2018, the organisation has detected 11 crashes, with one fatality and 17 injuries, according to the agency. From 2014 through 2021, the examination encompassed approximately 765,000 vehicles, including Tesla’s Models Y,X,S, and 3. The case is still under investigation.