A federal choose on Friday rejected Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s bid to maneuver or delay a trial over a deceptive tweet a couple of potential buyout of the electric automaker, setting the stage for the mercurial billionaire to be thrust right into a authorized drama amid the turmoil of his Twitter takeover.
The choice by US District Decide Edward Chen got here throughout a listening to held in San Francisco federal courtroom to go over the ultimate particulars of a trial scheduled to start Tuesday with jury choice.
Musk’s attorneys final week requested Chen to switch the trial to a federal courtroom in Texas, the place Tesla strikes its headquarters in 2021, arguing that destructive protection of Musk since his $44 billion buy of Twitter in October had poisoned the jury pool within the San Francisco Bay Space.
However Chen brushed apart these issues Friday, and expressed confidence {that a} panel of neutral jurors may very well be drawn from a area populated by thousands and thousands of individuals. He additionally famous {that a} jury was pulled collectively for trial within the extremely publicized felony trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, whose transformation from a Silicon Valley star to accused swindler was the topic of an HBO documentary and e book earlier than these proceedings started in close by San Jose, Calif..
Holmes, 38, is now dealing with greater than 11 years in federal jail of being convicted of investor fraud and conspiracy.
Musk’s upcoming trial revolves round a civil lawsuit introduced on behalf of Tesla shareholders who allege they have been duped by an Aug. 7, 2018 tweet wherein he indicated he had lined up financing for a Tesla buyout — a deal that by no means materialized and resulted in a $40 million settlement with US securities regulators.
Chen already has decided that Musk’s buyout tweet was false, leaving it to a jury to determine whether or not he acted recklessly by posting it and whether or not it precipitated monetary hurt to Tesla shareholders. After adjusting for 2 inventory splits made since 2018, Tesla’s shares at the moment are value almost six instances greater than on the time of Musk’s tweets in regards to the bogus buyout.
Tesla’s inventory was even value much more earlier than Musk determined to purchase Twitter for a value that even he conceded was excess of the corporate was value. Tesla’s shares, at present hovering round $120, have misplaced almost half their worth since Musk took management of Twitter, partially affecting investor issues that he’s spending an excessive amount of time operating privately held Twitter as an alternative of focusing on the automaker chargeable for most of his fame and wealth at a time it’s dealing with harder competitors.
Musk, 51, has mentioned he’ll step down as Twitter’s CEO as quickly as he can discover a alternative, however has not set a timetable for handing off the reins. To assist scale back Twitter’s losses and scale back the huge debt stemming from the acquisition, Musk has laid off about half of that firm’s employees and is dealing with allegations of refusing to pay the lease at some places of work.
Media protection of mass layoffs and different cutbacks at Twitter have been one of many predominant causes that Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, argued for the trial to be moved or at the very least delayed till the backlash to the cruel measures died down.
However the legal professionals representing Tesla shareholders within the case argued Musk solely has himself responsible for any destructive perceptions, largely due to his frequent exercise on Twitter, the social media platform that he now owns and runs.
“For better or worse, Musk is a celebrity who garners attention from the media around the globe,” the shareholders’ attorneys wrote of their 19-page opposition to the switch request. “His footprint on Twitter alone is partially to blame for that. If ‘negative’ attention was all that was required to disqualify a jury pool, Musk would effectively be untriable before a jury given his knack for attracting ’negative” protection.”
After sifting via about 200 juror questionnaires submitted earlier this week, Spiro argued lots of them have been peppered with derogatory remarks about Musk that underscored how troublesome it is going to be for him to get a good trial.
A few of these unflattering remarks surfaced throughout Friday’s listening to as Chen pored via the questionnaires in preparation for Tuesday’s jury choice. The choose disqualified jurors who he mentioned had variously described Musk as an “idiot” and a “buffoon.”
