Elon Musk Cleared by Jury In Defamation Case Over 'Pedo' Tweet -- Update
December 06 2019 - 9:25PM
Dow Jones News
By Tim Higgins
A Los Angeles jury ruled in favor of Elon Musk, deciding Friday
that the Tesla Inc. chief executive's use of Twitter last year to
suggest a British spelunker was a pedophile didn't amount to
defamation.
"The jury got it right," Mr. Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in
a statement after the ruling.
The legal battle stems from Mr. Musk's involvement in a
high-profile effort to rescue a youth soccer team trapped in a
flooded cave in Thailand last year. British cave explorer Vernon
Unsworth, who helped in the early days of the operation, criticized
Mr. Musk's effort to use a mini-sub to save the boys as a
public-relations stunt. The device was never used, and Mr. Unsworth
told CNN that Mr. Musk could "stick his submarine where it
hurts."
Mr. Musk responded with a tweet on July 15, 2018, to his then
more than 22 million followers with a defense that concluded:
"Sorry pedo guy. You really did ask for it." Responding to a
Twitter user noting that he was calling Mr. Unsworth a pedo, Mr.
Musk wrote: "Bet ya signed dollar it's true."
Mr. Musk, who later deleted the tweets and apologized, months
later returned to the topic. He posted a tweet that seemed to poke
further at Mr. Unsworth, reading in part, "You don't think it's
strange he hasn't sued me?" Two days later, he wrote an email to a
BuzzFeed News reporter, his comments subsequently published, that
doubled down on his Twitter statements.
"We went into Goliath's backyard to sue him because he made the
challenge `if you do not sue, it is true,'" Mr. Unsworth's lawyer
L. Lin Wood said in an email Friday. "As far as the verdict --
hell, Goliath wins almost every time. We all knew that."
Mr. Musk responded on Twitter, referring to Mr. Unsworth as
"pedo guy." He later deleted his tweets and apologized, only to
reignite the matter later with additional tweets.
The case attracted legal titans on both sides. Mr. Spiro, whose
clients have included billionaire Robert Kraft and rapper Jay-Z,
painted the exchange in the context of joking taunts during a
conflict between men. Mr. Musk made rare court appearances,
testifying he didn't mean to convey that Mr. Unsworth was an actual
pedophile, but rather "a creep."
Mr. Unsworth's legal team included Mr. Wood, who represented
Richard Jewell after he was falsely blamed for the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics bombing.
Mr. Unsworth's team sought to cast Mr. Musk as a high-profile
billionaire using his power to tarnish Mr. Unsworth's reputation.
Mr. Unsworth took the stand to describe the emotional toll the
matter had taken on him.
The trial also played out on Twitter, as reporters tweeted the
latest updates between breaks. Camera crews staked out the U.S.
District Court in hopes of capturing an image of Mr. Musk.
The war of words with Mr. Unsworth unfolded at a difficult time
for Tesla and Mr. Musk. The company was in the middle of a big push
to boost deliveries of its mass-market Model 3 electric car after
months of delays.
Mr. Musk's use of Twitter has helped Tesla generate publicity
for its electric vehicles, while also entangling him in legal
messes.
The Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of misleading
investors with a tweet last year that claimed he had lined up
funding to take Tesla private. He settled with the SEC, and as part
of that deal, agreed to have his tweets preapproved by Tesla when
dealing with the company's material business.
Mr. Musk was in a New York City court earlier this year before a
judge after the SEC claimed he violated the terms of the settlement
with tweets about production figures. The two sides resolved the
matter with a more detailed agreement on what pronouncements he
needs to have preapproved before tweeting.
Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 06, 2019 21:10 ET (02:10 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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