A U.S. jury on Friday found Tesla CEO Elon Musk not liable in a securities fraud case over a tweet that he had lined up funding to take the electric car company private.

Plaintiffs have claimed billions in damages, and the decision also had been seen as important for Musk himself, who has aggressively fought any charges that he was guilty of and defended his ability to tweet broadly.

Musk, 51, wasn't on hand for the brief reading of the verdict but he made a surprise appearance earlier on Friday for closing arguments that drew starkly different portraits of him.

Not long after the verdict came down, Musk took to Twitter to celebrate."Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed!"

Musk's decision to break away from his other responsibilities to sit in on the closing arguments even though he didn't have to be there may have had an impact on the jurors, said Michael Freedman, a former federal prosecutor who is now in private practice working for a law firm.

"It shows he has a presence," Freedman said.

Nicholas Porritt, an attorney who represented aggrieved Tesla investors, said he was disappointed after urging the jurors in his closing arguments to rebuke Musk for reckless behavior that threatened to create "anarchy."

"I don't think this is the kind of conduct we expect from a large public company,"Porritt said after discussing the verdict with a few jurors who gathered to talk to him.

"People can draw their own conclusion on whether they think it's OK or not."

The trial pitted Tesla investors represented in a class-action lawsuit against Musk, who is CEO of both the electric automaker and the Twitter service he bought for $44 billion a few months ago.

Shortly before boarding his private jet on August 7, 2018, Musk tweeted that he had the financing to take Tesla private, even though it turned out he hadn't gotten an iron-clad commitment for a deal that would have cost $20 billion to $70 billion to pull off. A few hours later, Musk sent another tweet indicating that the deal was imminent.

Musk's integrity was at stake at the trial as well part of a fortune that has established him as one of the world's richest people. He could have been saddled with a bill for billions of dollars in damages had the jury found him liable for the 2018 tweets that had already been deemed falsehoods by the judge presiding over the trial.

That determination, made last year by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, left the jury to decide whether Musk had been reckless with his tweeting and acted in a way that hurt Tesla shareholders.

"It may have not been that difficult for the jury,"Freedman said, "because it sort of became like an up-or-down vote."

(With input from agencies)