The jury in Elon Musk’s trial was selected from a pool that described him as “arrogant” and “out of control.”

The five-hour trial set the stage for opening statements due to begin Wednesday in the case, which are expected to include statements from Musk to explain his reasoning while pursuing one of his favorite pastimes – tweeting on the Twitter service he now owns owns.

In the Tesla case, Musk’s tweets fueled a rally in the company’s share price that ended abruptly a week later after it emerged he didn’t have the funding for an acquisition after all. Investors then sued him, saying Tesla stock wouldn’t have fluctuated in value as much if he hadn’t raised the prospect of buying the company at $420 a share.

Musk’s tweet also caught the attention of securities regulators, who concluded that it was inappropriate and that he was lying. In a settlement, they forced him to pay $40 million and asked him to resign as Tesla chairman.

He has since claimed he entered into the settlement under duress and claims he believed he had secured financial backing for the takeover in meetings with officials from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Despite making major changes at Twitter, Musk continues to serve as Tesla’s CEO and derives most of his wealth and fame from the company.

The process depends on one August 7, 2018, tweet in which Musk claimed he provided financing for a $72 billion buyout of Tesla, which he then bolstered with addendum that left a deal imminent.

But the acquisition never materialized, and now Musk must explain his actions under oath in federal court in San Francisco. The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of investors who owned Tesla stock for a 10-day period in August 2018.

The outcome of the trial could affect the jury’s interpretation of Musk’s motive for the tweets, which US District Judge Edward Chen has already ruled false.

The judge dealt Musk another setback on Friday when he rejected Musk’s offer to move the trial to a federal court in Texas, where Tesla will be moving its headquarters in 2021. Musk had argued that the negative media coverage of his Twitter purchase poisoned the jury in the San Francisco Bay area.

The challenge of finding jurors without strong feelings toward Musk became apparent during Tuesday’s painstaking selection process.

At one point, the judge flagged some would-be jurors who had expressed extreme concern or enthusiasm about Musk in pre-trial questionnaires. Seven jurors were individually questioned separately from the rest of the jury to reduce the possibility of influencing the opinions of others in the courtroom.

Chen and attorneys for both the shareholders and Musk eventually tried seven of those jurors, who variously described Musk as “arrogant,” “narcissistic,” “unpredictable,” “a little crazy,” “a mercenary,” and “a genius.” “ described .”

Musk’s stewardship of Twitter — where he has eviscerated employees and alienated users and advertisers — has proved unpopular with Tesla’s current shareholders, who are concerned he has devoted less time to the automaker at a time of increased competition.

Those concerns contributed to a 65% drop in Tesla stock over the past year that wiped out more than $700 billion in shareholder wealth — far more than the $14 billion wealth swing that rippled between the high and low stock prices of the company Company dated July 17th, 2018, the period covered in the Complaint.

Tesla stock has split twice since then, so the price of $420 is now worth $28 on an adjusted basis. The stock closed at $122.40 last week, down from the company’s split-adjusted November 2021 peak of $414.50.

After Musk dropped the idea of ​​a Tesla buyout, the company overcame a manufacturing problem, leading to a rapid upswing in auto sales that sent its stock skyrocketing and made Musk the richest person on earth until he bought Twitter. Musk fell from the top of the asset list after a backlash in the stock market over his dealings with Twitter.

The trial is likely to provide insight into Musk’s leadership style, as the witness list includes some of Tesla’s current and former top executives and board members, including luminaries like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

The drama could shed some light on Musk’s relationship with his brother Kimbal, who is also on the list of potential witnesses. The process is expected to last until early February.

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