Elon Musk says he can’t afford a fair trial in San Francisco and wants his shareholders to go to trial Musk’s case is set to begin on the 17th.
He urged a federal judge to move it to Austin Texas, where he moved Tesla in late 2021. That negative media coverage poisoned potential jurors against him.
The lawsuit stems from Musk’s 2018 tweet when he said he had financing in place to take Tesla private on 420 shares. Elon Musk has urged a federal judge to move the trial to a shareholder trial outside San Francisco because he says negative local media coverage has biased potential jurors against him.
In a filing submitted late Friday, less than two weeks before the trial is set to begin on January 17, Elon Musk’s lawyers argued that it should be moved to federal court in the Western District of Texas and fully resolved.
That district includes the state capital of Austin, where Elon Musk is set to move his electric car company Tesla in late 2021. The shareholder lawsuit stemmed from Musk’s tweet in August 2018 when he said he had enough financing to take Tesla private at $420 per share. An announcement that caused massive volatility in Tesla’s share price.
Judge Edward Chen ruled that the tweets by Elon Musk were false and reckless. If it is not possible to proceed with the trial, Musk’s lawyers want it to be postponed until the negative publicity surrounding the billionaire’s purchase of Twitter subsides.
For the past several months, the local media has saturated this district with biased and negative stories about Mr. Elon Musk and that’s what attorney Alex Spiro wrote in a court filing. has blamed Musk personally for the layoffs, alleging that the job cuts may also violate laws.
Lawyers for shareholders stressed the last-minute timing of the request, saying Elon Musk’s concerns were unfounded and his motion was disqualifying. The Northern District of California is the proper venue for this lawsuit and where it has been actively litigated for four years, attorney Nicolas Porritt wrote in an email.
The filing by Elon Musk’s lawyers also says Twitter has laid off about 1,000 residents in the San Francisco area since it bought the company in late October. He is likely to have a personal and material prejudice against Mr. Elon Musk.
Recent layoffs at one of his companies may have personally resulted in potential juror members or their friends and relatives and Elon has been called upon by the mayor of San Francisco and other officials for job cuts, the filing said and elon Musk has also been criticized.