Elon: "so you fuckers think you can bully me, blackmail me with money and denigrate me? Let's see if the public are ALL on your side...(has hand over button that says in case of bullshit, release the Jones)"

To be truthful, I think Elon just knew he was too radioactive to bring back at the time, but now all the bs cases are done with him and they're gunning for him but are spread too thin, doing it this way might send the signal they have no control of the narrative anymore.