Tesla Shareholders Ask Judge to Silence Musk

JUL 28 2022·Updated JAN 20 2023

Story

Image credit: Miguel Roberts/AP Photo [via Snopes.com]

The Facts

Tesla shareholders have asked a judge to prevent CEO Elon Musk from talking about his 2018 tweets until after their lawsuit is heard in May. They claim he's attempting to influence potential jurors.
Independent
The lawsuit stems from tweets issued by Musk asserting that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share, an act the plaintiffs contend manipulated the company's stock price and cost them money.
Independent
Musk settled an SEC investigation into the tweets in 2019 when he agreed to pay financial penalties and to have lawyers vet any business-related tweets prior to publication.
Independent
As recently as last week, Musk again claimed in an interview that he did in fact have funding in place to take Tesla private in 2018.
Raw Story
However, it's been revealed during the course of this lawsuit that US federal judge Edward Chen, in a previously unreleased ruling, deemed that the tweet was "false and misleading" and was sent "recklessly and with full awareness of the facts that he misrepresented."
Reuters
The developments in this case come amidst Musk's controversial offer to purchase 100% of outstanding Twitter shares to take the company private for more than $43B, and the Twitter board taking a "poison pill" to try to prevent him from doing so.
FOX News

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Musk is crazy … crazy like a fox. When he knew he needed to give Tesla stock a boost, he tweeted about taking the company private. True or false, Musk kept Tesla out of bankruptcy and eventually it turned a profit, and all it cost Musk was a settlement with the SEC. What a great example of American industriousness in the face of government overreach.

New York Post

Narrative B

Musk's flippant attitudes toward financial regulations and his theories on unlimited free speech are dangerous, if not criminal. He must be held to account for his actions to prove that billionaires can't just do what they want and get away with it.