LOS ANGELES: Tesla CEO Elon Musk will have to go to trial to defend himself for mocking a British diver as a paedophile in a verbal sparring match that unfolded last summer after the dramatic rescue of the Wild Boars football team from the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai.
A federal court judge in Los Angeles set an Oct 22 trial date on Friday in a court filing that rejected Musk’s attempt to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by British diver Vernon Unsworth.
Musk called Unsworth a “pedo” in a July 15 post on this Twitter account after Unsworth, in an interview with CNN, dismissed Musk’s attempts to help rescue the footballers as a “PR stunt”. Unsworth also derided the submarine that Musk had built for a rescue mission, prompting Musk to lash back on this Twitter account, which had 22.5 million followers at the time
Musk contended his insult was protected from legal action, but the judge overseeing the case disagreed.
Unsworth is seeking US$75,000 in damages from Musk, a multibillionaire. The suit also seeks a court order prohibiting Musk from making any further disparaging comments.
This is the second time in less than a year that Musk’s free-wheeling comments on Twitter have saddled him with legal headaches.
Last year, Musk and Tesla reached a $40-million settlement with US market regulators over allegations that he misled investors with a tweet declaring he had secured financing for a buyout of the electric car maker.
He then had to go to court earlier this year to defend himself against assertions that he had violated an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission by making more tweets about Tesla’s business prospects.