Elon Musk’s lawyers want to move his upcoming Tesla investor fraud trial from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, to avoid potential jury bias.
Chief Twit’s attorneys say because he recently laid off 50 percent of Twitter workers in the Northern California city, there is a sense of “local negativity” among area residents.
The billionaire’s lawyers want the trial moved to Texas — where Tesla is currently headquartered — after he moved from Palo Alto in late 2021.
The lawsuit stems from tweets Musk sent in August 2018 claiming he had “secured funding” to take Tesla private and that the news was “undeniably false” and would cost them billions.
Elon Musk’s lawyers want to move his upcoming Tesla investor fraud trial from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, to avoid potential jury bias
Chief Twit’s attorneys say because he recently laid off 50 percent of Twitter workers in the Northern California city, there is a sense of “local negativity” among area residents.
The CEO claims he has not misled investors and that he has funds from Saudi Arabia to back his statements.
Musk, 51, is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and immediately championed it as CEO.
In court filings, Musk’s attorneys say the man is a constant target of Bay Area news sources and that means he can’t get a fair trial in California.
‘Mr. Musk is much more likely to get a fair trial in the Western District of Texas,” wrote the billionaire’s attorney, Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
‘Mr. Musk has not been the subject of overwhelming, pervasive, and inflammatory local media coverage in Texas’ Western District, as he has in that district. Texas news outlets are doing far fewer stories about Mr. Musk.”
The filing comes less than two weeks before the court hearing is scheduled to begin Jan. 17 in Northern California.
Musk, 51, bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and immediately installed himself as CEO
Twitter is headquartered in San Francisco, California
Tesla is headquartered in Austin, Texas
The process stems from tweets Musk sent out in August 2018 about the company’s privatization
Musk tweeted that he would take his electric vehicle company private for $420 a share and could do so with “funding secured.”
In August 2018, Musk tweeted that he would take his electric vehicle company private for $420 per share and could do so with “funding secured.”
In the weeks that followed, Tesla ceased trading and the shares were classified as volatile based on his tweets.
Northern California Chief District Judge Edward M. Chen ruled in 2022 that Musk’s statements in 2018 were false and that the CEO knowingly tweeted them.
The jury in the upcoming trial will help determine whether the tweets affected Tesla’s stock prices and whether the company should be held liable for damages.
In the weeks that followed, Tesla ceased trading and the shares were classified as volatile based on his tweets
Northern California Chief District Judge Edward M. Chen ruled in 2022 that Musk’s statements in 2018 were false and that the CEO knowingly tweeted them
There are more than 1,700 miles between San Francisco, where the trail currently resides, and Austin, where Musk’s attorneys want it moved
Musk’s lawyers have argued that his testimonies do not violate the law at all.
He says it was a private handshake deal that prompted him to tweet the news about the company’s potential to be privatized.
Text messages revealed in another trial involving the CEO in 2022 implied that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund had not fully approved the deal.
Court filings this month show that Musk’s lawyers subpoenaed four people to testify at the trial, including Naif Al Mogren, Saad Al Jarboa, Turqi Alnowaise and Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
Mogren, Al Jarboa, Alnowaise and Al-Rumayyan all work with the PIF of Saudi Arabia.
This is Tesla’s headquarters in Travis County, Texas
The company moved from Palo Alto to Austin in late 2021
Though Musk’s attorneys say the trial should be postponed because Tesla now operates in Texas, the company still has nearly 50,000 employees in the Golden State.
Musk’s counsel alleges that the jury pool “likely harbors a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of the recent firings at one of his companies, as individual potential jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally affected.”
“The existing underlying bias has been exacerbated, broadened and reinforced by the negative and inflammatory local publicity surrounding the events,” claim attorneys.
However, the lawyers explain that the charges are not only being brought because of the negative media coverage he has received.
Musk’s attorneys say the jury members “likely have a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent firings at one of his companies as individual potential jurors.”
Musk has laid off thousands of employees from the company since taking over as CEO
‘Mr. Musk has been a public figure for more than a decade and recognizes that comes with territory being the subject of negative and even unfair media attention,” the filing said.
“The local media and political establishment have attempted to portray Mr. Musk as personally responsible for causing material economic damage to the significant number of potential jurors affected by the sackings and to the city of San Francisco as a whole.”
Musk has laid off thousands of employees from the company since taking over as CEO.
In addition to the job cuts, Musk faced backlash in the Bay Area for blasting San Francisco Mayor London Breed over the homelessness and drug problem.
Musk may also have violated public building codes by converting some rooms at Twitter’s Market Street headquarters into bedrooms.