Elon Musk’s Lawyers Say He Can’t Get A Fair Trial in California

• Elon Musk faces a class-action lawsuit after tweets claiming that he secured funding for Tesla’s privatization.
• His lawyers claim that the trial should take place in Texas rather than California to ensure fairness.
• They argued that prospective jurors are biased towards Musk since Musk’s Twitter takeover.

His Twitter takeover has made Elon Musk so unpopular in California that it’s unlikely that he would be able get a fair trial. This was according to his lawyers in a recent court filing.

The Tesla chief executive is now facing a class action lawsuit for his actions. 2018 tweetsIndicates that he planned to take the electric vehicle company privateShares were $420 each and there was “funding secured” for this.

Musk was fined $20 million just one month after his initial tweet in 2018. settled fraud chargesSEC for making misleading and false statements. Musk denied or admitted the allegations, but he resigned from his position as Tesla’s chairman. He was replaced by Robyn Denholm.

Northern California Senior Judge Edward M. Chen, who will supervise the class action trial, ruled that Musk knowingly made the false claims, which may have affected Tesla’s share price. The trial will determine if the posts actually had an impact on Tesla’s share prices, if the company and its directors should be held responsible, and if shareholders have the right to damages. according to NBC News.

After finalizing his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter last year, the billionaire remains roughly $13 billion in debt — much of which is secured against his remaining stake in Tesla as part of the leveraged buyout, The Street reportedThis made the financial future of both companies deeply intertwined. 

Tesla’s stock has fallen to $113.06 a share since October 27, when it was acquired by Twitter. This is the lowest point since August 2020.

Musk’s business dealings following the acquisition of the social media company, which include mass layoffsCulture current employees describe as “toxic,”According to his lawyers, this could make it more difficult for him to be convicted by a jury of his peers from California. He should be moved to Texas.

Alex Spiro was Musk’s attorney. a motion filed Friday that a “substantial portion of the jury pool in this District is likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies as individual prospective jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted. The negative and inflammatory local media surrounding the events have exacerbated the existing bias.

Tesla will launch in December 2021 relocated its headquartersFrom Silicon Valley to Austin Texas. Twitter’s headquarters are still in San Francisco, California.

Referencing regular protests and picket lines in front of Musk’s offices in San Francisco — some of which, Spiro said, are “endorsed and encouraged by local political figures” — Musk’s attorneys noted in the filing that the “negativity toward Mr. Musk was not isolated to the press” and “will deprive him of an impartial jury and his constitutional right to a fair trial.”

Spiro requested a continuance in the delay of the trial. He argued that the judge should allow “the passions which have been inflamed by recent events and biased media coverage to dissipate before jurors hear the case.”

Judge Chen is expected to hear the request on January 13, according To the filingJust four days are left before the trial will begin.

Insider reached Musk, his legal team and representatives of Tesla but did not receive any response immediately.