WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk has urged a federal judge to postpone a trial in a San Francisco shareholder lawsuit because he says negative local media coverage turned potential jurors against him.
Instead, in a lawsuit filed late Friday night, Musk’s lawyers argue that the trial should be moved to federal court in western Texas, which includes the state capital Austin. Musk moved his electric vehicle company Tesla to Austin in late 2021.
If a move is not possible, Musk’s lawyers have called for a delay in the trial, due to begin on January 17, until the negative publicity surrounding Musk’s purchase of Twitter subsides.
“Over the past few months, the local media has filled the area with biased and negative stories about Mr. Musk,” lawyer Alex Spiro wrote in a court document. In these materials, Musk is personally blamed for the recent Twitter layoffs, writes Spiro, and accused that job cuts could even violate laws.
The shareholder lawsuit stems from Musk’s tweets in August 2018, when he said he had enough funding to buy Tesla back at $420 a share, causing Tesla’s share price to become highly volatile.
Last spring, when shareholders prevailed, Judge Edward Chen ruled that the tweets were false and reckless.
The statement from Musk’s lawyers also notes that Twitter has laid off about 1,000 residents in the San Francisco area since it bought the company in late October.
“A significant portion of the jury … is likely to have a personal and financial bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies, as individual potential jurors – or their friends and relatives – may have been personally affected,” it says. in the message.
Musk has also come under fire from the mayor of San Francisco and other local officials for cutting jobs, the statement said.
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