Elon Musk is disliked by 82% of San Francisco would-be jurors with ‘passion’, his attorneys say
Elon Musk’s attorneys argued in their bid to move his securities fraud trial out of San Francisco that 82% of all potential jurors who have an opinion of the billionaire view him negatively.
Questionnaires from nearly 200 prospective jurors returned to the federal judge handling the case support the argument that the Northern California jury pool for the trial, which begins next week, is “biased against Mr. Musk” and that a Much of the allegation bias relates to the lawsuit — “namely, Mr. Musk’s use and honesty on Twitter,” his attorneys said.
The latest filing by Tesla Inc. CEO and new Twitter Inc. owner is part of his push to move the case brought by Tesla shareholders to another location, preferably Texas, in San Francisco over “local negativity” after Musk Twitter had recently slashed staff in its effort to redesign the social media platform.
Investors claim Musk’s August 2018 tweets about privatizing the electric carmaker with “secured funding” were “undeniably wrong” and cost them billions of dollars by sending Tesla’s stock price wildly swinging. Musk has claimed that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has agreed to back his attempt to take Tesla private.
The questionnaires, which are not publicly available, show that prospective jurors not only dislike Musk but have a “passion” for negativity, his attorneys said in the filing. Details of what the jury wrote are redacted.
The responses show “not only that a large majority of potential jurors harbor ill will toward Mr. Musk, but that they are not afraid to proudly and vividly declare it in court,” his attorneys said.
Lawyers for shareholders have argued that Musk is a celebrity drawing media attention around the world — much of it negatively — and that his presence on Twitter is partly to blame.
But the investors’ lawyers also said none of the potential judges work for Twitter and only two or three potential panelists know anyone employed by the company.
“The potential for bias arising from Musk’s management of Twitter is non-existent,” they said.
A hearing on Musk’s request to move the case is scheduled for Friday, and the trial is set to begin Jan. 17.
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