Were the purchasers assuming that Musk's involvement in government would improve conditions for owning that debt?
"Morgan Stanley held the lenders together, betting on the relationship of one of its then top bankers — Michael Grimes — and his client Musk, people familiar with the matter said. The bank led weekly calls to update the other lenders on X’s performance. Working together as a bloc helped avoid one single bank abruptly selling the debt at a discount."
Sounds like... collusion.
Morgan Stanley and Bank of America came out on top of this trade. Musk's government involvement was not known with any certainty when he bought X.