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By Tom Hals and Sheila Dang

WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) -Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over his conduct in his $44 billion takeover deal for Twitter Inc, the social media co*pany said in a court filing released on Thursday.

While the filing said he was under investigations, it did not say what the exact focus of the probes were and which federal authorities are conducting them. 

Twitter, which sued Musk in July to force him to close the deal, said attorneys for the Tesla Inc CEO had claimed “investigative privilege” when refusing to hand over documents it had sought.

In late September, Musk’s attorneys had provided a “privilege log” identifying documents to be withheld, Twitter said. The log referenced drafts of a May 13 email to the U.S. Securities and Exchange co*mission (SEC) and a slide presentation to the Federal Trade co*mission (FTC).

The court filing, which asked a Delaware judge to order the Musk’s attorneys to provide the documents, was made on Oct. 6 – the same day that the judge that paused litigation between the two sides after Musk reversed course and said he would proceed with the deal.

“This game of ‘hide the ball’ must end,” the co*pany said in the court filing.

Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, told Reuters that Twitter’s court filing was a “misdirection.” Twitter declined to co*ment on Spiro’s response and to Reuters queries about its understanding of any investigation into Musk. 

The SEC did not immediately respond to request for co*ment and the FTC declined to co*ment.

The SEC has questioned Musk’s co*ments about the Twitter acquisition. In April, the SEC asked Musk whether the disclosure of his 9% Twitter stake was late and why it indicated that he intended to be a passive shareholder. Musk later refiled the disclosure to indicate he was an active investor.

In June, the SEC asked Musk in a letter whether he should have amended his public filing to reflect his intention to suspend or abandon the deal.

The Information, a tech news site, reported in April that the FTC was scrutinizing whether Musk failed to co*ply with an antitrust reporting requirement as he amassed his stake in Twitter.

Twitter said in June that the takeover deal with Musk had cleared an antitrust waiting period for review by the FTC and U.S. Justice Department.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, Sheila Dang in Dallas and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Reese and Edwina Gibbs)