{"id":10984,"date":"2026-10-13T22:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T02:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?p=10984"},"modified":"2026-10-13T22:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T02:11:25","slug":"judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge signals no sanctions for Mullenweg, but Automattic\u2019s letter draws scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">A federal magistrate judge signaled Wednesday that he will probably deny <a href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">WP Engine<\/a>\u2019s request to sanction <a href=\"https:\/\/automattic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Automattic<\/a> and Matt Mullenweg over messages the hosting company says disappeared. Still, the hearing handed WP Engine one point to hold onto.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Magistrate Judge Ajay Krishnan shared his tentative view before either side spoke. He called <a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/4581-2\/\">Mullenweg<\/a>\u2019s September 2024 post on X, which invited people to message him on Signal with disappearing settings, \u201cadmittedly problematic.\u201d However, he said the remaining record did not show spoliation, which means destroying or failing to preserve evidence.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Krishnan called Mullenweg\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Even so, he found WP Engine\u2019s strongest argument in an April 2025 letter from Automattic\u2019s former lawyers at Gibson Dunn, which claimed they had taken all reasonable steps to preserve Mullenweg\u2019s 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\u2019s lawyer Yury Kapgan went further, calling it outright false.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Krishnan also pushed back on <a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-engine-escalates-legal-fight-claims-broader-royalty-push-by-automattic\/\">WP Engine<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Meanwhile, Automattic\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A written order should arrive shortly, and a 10-day jury trial begins October 19, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal magistrate judge signaled Wednesday that he will probably deny WP Engine\u2019s 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\u2019s September 2024 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20624,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1656,8418,1658,8417,2374],"class_list":["post-10984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-automattic","tag-discovery-sanctions","tag-matt-mullenweg","tag-spoliation-motion","tag-wp-engine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Judge signals no sanctions for Mullenweg, but Automattic\u2019s letter draws scrutiny - Web Hosting News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge signals no sanctions for Mullenweg, but Automattic\u2019s letter draws scrutiny - Web Hosting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A federal magistrate judge signaled Wednesday that he will probably deny WP Engine\u2019s 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\u2019s September 2024 [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Web Hosting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-14T02:25:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-14T02:11:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justine Juyad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justine Juyad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/\",\"name\":\"Judge signals no sanctions for Mullenweg, but Automattic\u2019s letter draws scrutiny - Web Hosting News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-14T02:25:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-14T02:11:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Judge signals no sanctions for Mullenweg, but Automattic\u2019s letter draws scrutiny\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Web Hosting News\",\"description\":\"Cloud and web hosting industry daily news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3\",\"name\":\"Justine Juyad\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Justine Juyad\"},\"description\":\"HostingDiscussion.com senior reporter\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/author\/justine-juyad\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Judge signals no sanctions for Mullenweg, but Automattic\u2019s letter draws scrutiny - Web Hosting News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/judge-signals-no-sanctions-for-mullenweg-but-automattics-letter-draws-scrutiny\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Judge signals no sanctions for Mullenweg, but Automattic\u2019s letter draws scrutiny - Web Hosting News","og_description":"A federal magistrate judge signaled Wednesday that he will probably deny WP Engine\u2019s request to sanction Automattic and Matt Mullenweg over messages the hosting company says disappeared. 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