A federal magistrate judge signaled Wednesday that he will probably deny WP Engine’s request to sanction Automattic and Matt Mullenweg over messages the hosting company says disappeared. Still, the hearing handed WP Engine one point to hold onto.
Magistrate Judge Ajay Krishnan shared his tentative view before either side spoke. He called Mullenweg’s September 2024 post on X, which invited people to message him on Signal with disappearing settings, “admittedly problematic.” However, he said the remaining record did not show spoliation, which means destroying or failing to preserve evidence.
That marks a shift from April, when Krishnan ordered Mullenweg to explain the missing messages under oath. WP Engine contends that his WhatsApp and Signal messages went uncaptured for 20 months after Automattic’s duty to preserve kicked in. WP Engine wants the court to tell the jury to presume the lost messages supported its case. Automattic fires back that WP Engine cannot point to a single missing message by name.
Krishnan called Mullenweg’s sworn testimony that he used disappearing messages only with romantic partners unrebutted. He also noted that messages other people sent with disappearing settings on would likely have vanished before anyone collected them.
Even so, he found WP Engine’s strongest argument in an April 2025 letter from Automattic’s former lawyers at Gibson Dunn, which claimed they had taken all reasonable steps to preserve Mullenweg’s messages. Nobody imaged his phone until two weeks later, and that attempt missed his WhatsApp and Signal messages entirely. Krishnan said the letter overstated what actually happened, and WP Engine’s lawyer Yury Kapgan went further, calling it outright false.
Krishnan also pushed back on WP Engine for sending general preservation demands instead of naming the X post. Kapgan answered that a September 23, 2024 demand mentioned ephemeral messages two days after the post.
Meanwhile, Automattic’s lawyer Stephen Shackelford argued nothing is missing, yet he could not say whether anyone verified in April 2025 that disappearing messages were off. The earliest confirmation came from an October 2025 Zoom call, which Krishnan admitted was a problem.
A written order should arrive shortly, and a 10-day jury trial begins October 19, 2027.
