The judge overseeing X’s lawsuit against advertisers has recused himself after news reports said he had bought shares of Tesla.

In a dismissal letter dated Aug. 13, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas withdrew from X’s lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers, which was filed last week. The judge did not say why he withdrew from the suit.

X, formerly known as Twitter, is owned by Elon Musk, who is also Tesla’s CEO and largest shareholder. On Monday, NPR reported that O’Connor owned Tesla shares in 2022, the date of his last available disclosure, posing a potential conflict of interest.

Calls to the court clerk seeking comment were not immediately returned.

In X’s lawsuit, the company accused a number of advertisers of antitrust conduct when they stopped running their advertising campaigns on the site. In Europe, the companies named include Unilever, Mars, CVS Healthcare and Orsted.

In response to the lawsuit, the WFA announced that it was ceasing operations of its nonprofit initiative, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

The new judge in charge of the case, Ed Kinkeade, issued an order on Tuesday stating that each party must justify any request to the court to keep submitted documents sealed and withheld from the public.

O’Connor is a former staffer for Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas and a former federal prosecutor in North Texas. He is currently serving as a judge in another lawsuit brought by X against Media Matters for America. The suit was filed in November after the progressive watchdog released a report on Nazi content running alongside ads from companies on the app.

REGARD: Tesla faces tough competition in China and slow adoption of electric vehicles in the US