Elon Musk has asked a judge to move an upcoming shareholder lawsuit trial from San Francisco, citing concerns that the jury could be biased against him as previously reported by CNBC. In a Friday reportMusk is asking the judge to move the trial to West Texas because of the “local negativity” in the Bay Area surrounding Elon Musk and his companies, preventing due process.
“The recent local media coverage has created an environment that encourages the district jurors to hold negative biases against Mr. Musk’s use of Twitter,” the filing reads. “Prospective jurors who, as a result of this reporting, have a generally negative opinion of Mr. Musk’s use of and relationship with Twitter, will not be able to separate this bias from the facts in this case and thus be unable to to judge Musk’s conduct impartially.”
The indictment alleges that Musk’s mass firings on Twitter have “already caused significant bias” among local jurors.
It also alleges that Musk and his San Francisco offices are often the subject of protests “encouraged” by local politicians, further amplifying this “prejudice” and resulting in an unfair trial. If the judge decides not to move the trial to Texas, where Tesla is based, Musk and his lawyers are asking for the trial to be postponed to make the “negative feelings” around Musk disappear.
