Elon Musk has subpoenaed Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey ahead of his $44bn legal fight with the social media app later this year.

The Tesla titan and the San Francisco-based company will face off in the Delaware Court of Chancery in October over Mr Musk’s decision to back out of his high-profile purchase of Twitter.

The billionaire told Twitter last month that he would not go through with his purchase, alleging it “made false and misleading representations” when he agreed to take control of it.

It followed a months-long feud between Mr Musk and the Twitter board over the number of bots and fake accounts on app, with the entrepreneur claiming it was significantly higher than the tech company claimed.

Mr Dorsey, who stepped down as CEO last year, has previously been publicly supportive of Mr Musk’s takeover of Twitter.

“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company,” Mr Dorsey tweeted in April.

“Solving the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”The subpoena reportedly seeks documents and communications from Mr Dorsey about the Twitter merger, how spam and bot accounts impact Twitter’s business and operations and the use of “monetizable daily active usage” as a key metric.

After Twitter sued to force through the agreed deal, Mr Musk countersued claiming they misrepresented the number of fake accounts at less than five per cent.

The Twitter board has recommended the sale of the company and despite the legal action shareholders will vote on it at a special meeting on 13 September.