SAN FRANCISCO, May 9 (Reuters) - A federal judge on

Thursday indicated a willingness to compel Elon Musk to testify

again in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's

investigation into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter.

Lawyers for the billionaire appeared in a San Francisco

courtroom on Thursday to urge U.S. District Judge Jacqueline

Scott Corley to decide against the SEC, which is seeking to

force Musk to testify as part of its probe into his 2022

purchase of social media giant Twitter. Another judge previously

ruled in favor of the agency.

The SEC sued Musk in October to compel the Tesla

and SpaceX CEO to testify after he refused to attend a September

interview for the investigation, saying the SEC was trying to

"harass" him with a number of subpoenas.

The judge did not issue a decision on Thursday.

"I don't think that the deposition subpoena is unreasonable.

What I don't know is why does the deposition have to be at an

SEC office?" Corley said at a hearing at the United States

District Court for the Northern District of California.

The investigation concerns whether Musk broke federal

securities laws in 2022 when he bought stock in Twitter, which

he later renamed X. It is also reviewing statements and SEC

filings he made in relation to the deal, the agency has

previously said.

In 2022, Musk supplied the SEC with documents for its probe

and also testified via videoconference for two half-day sessions

in July of that year, the SEC has said in court documents.

Agency lawyers have said they have more questions for Musk after

receiving new documents, and had sought additional testimony.

Musk's lawyer, Rachel Frank, an associate with Quinn Emanuel

Urquhart & Sullivan, on Thursday told the judge the additional

testimony would be a "burden" for Musk and take him away from

obligations to shareholders.

The judge asked whether Musk should be exempt from

securities laws and further investigations just because he is a

"very busy person" who is running multiple companies.

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thursday's face-off is the latest dispute in a years-long

feud between Musk and the top U.S. markets regulator, dating

back to 2018 when he tweeted that he had "funding secured" to

take the electric carmaker private.