In a shareholder lawsuit, Elon Musk has urged a federal judge to move a trial out of San Francisco because he claims negative local media coverage biased potential jurors against him.
Instead, in a filing late Friday, Mr. Musk’s lawyers argue that the trial should be moved to federal court in West Texas, which includes the state capital, Austin. Mr Musk moved his electric car company, Tesla, to Austin in late 2021.
If a decision is not possible, Mr. Musk’s lawyers have asked that the trial, which was due to begin on January 17, be postponed until the negative publicity around Mr. Musk’s purchase of Twitter subsides. be calmed down.
“Over the past few months, local media has saturated this district with biased and negative stories about Mr. Musk,” attorney Alex Spiro wrote in a court filing. These articles personally blamed Mr. Musk for the recent layoffs at Twitter, Mr.e Spiro, and accused the job cuts of even violating the laws.
The shareholder lawsuit stems from Mr. Musk tweeting in August 2018 when he said he had sufficient funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share, an announcement that caused the stock price to be highly volatile. stock of Tesla.
In a shareholder victory last spring, Judge Edward Chen ruled that the Twitter posts were untrue and reckless.
Mr. Musk’s attorneys’ filing also notes that Twitter has laid off about 1,000 San Francisco-area residents since it bought the company in late October.
“A significant portion of the jury pool…is likely to have a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk following recent layoffs at one of his companies because individual potential jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted,” the filing states.
Mr. Musk has also been criticized by the mayor of San Francisco and other local officials for the job cuts, according to the filing.