Honestly surprised any of this made it past the legal department at Tesla. Any company I've worked at has always been super careful and conservative with the language you use to describe anything.
Elon made a mistake of giving a specific number. If he just made any run of the mill bullshit grandiose claims it would have been fine. I really have no idea why people are so caught up on this. There is massive securities fraud actually happening every day, and people are hung up on some Twitter banter from half a decade ago.
The lawyers will cover themselves by writing memos about how they "informed the client to not do thing X, but they indicated that they don't care," but because those are work product, they're confidential. They're only for future malpractice suits, should they come.
If I -- Minion #64752 in BigCorp -- run my ad copy by legal and they strike it all as a legal hazard, but I run the ad anyway, my boss -- Low-Level Manager #11235 -- is going to fire me the next day, and hope that keeps his boss -- Mid-Level Manager #3142 -- from doing the same to him.
If legal doesn't have veto power on ad copy, it's because the management hasn't given it to them, or because management is making the decision to disregard legal's advice.
Tesla likely has a complete understanding of all the possible legal outcomes. At present Tesla isn’t actually facing ANY criminal charges. They are being investigated, but that investigation has been ongoing for more than a year. This very article cites Tesla marketing and usage language which complicates any potential DOJ case.
Modern masters deceive you with the truth - carefully selected facts, but true. Or close enough for legal purposes.