Elon Musk says 82% of San Francisco jury pool views him negatively

SAN FRANCISCO - Elon Musk’s lawyers argued in their bid to get his securities fraud trial moved out of San Francisco, saying that 82 per cent of potential jurors who have an opinion of the billionaire view him negatively.

Questionnaires returned to the federal judge handling the case reinforce the argument that the Northern California jury pool for the trial starting next week “is biased against Mr Musk”, and that much of the bias relates to claims in the lawsuit – “namely, Mr Musk’s use of and honesty on Twitter”, his lawyers said.

The latest filing by the Tesla CEO and new owner of Twitter is part of his push to get the case brought by Tesla shareholders moved somewhere else, preferably Texas, due to “local negativity” in San Francisco after Mr Musk recently

slashed Twitter’s workforce

in his effort to remake the social media platform.

Investors allege Mr Musk’s August 2018 tweets about taking the electric-car maker private with “funding secured” were “indisputably false” and cost them billions of dollars by spurring wild swings in Tesla’s stock price. Mr Musk has maintained that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund had agreed to support his attempt to take Tesla private.

The questionnaires, which are not publicly available, show potential jurors don’t just dislike Mr Musk but feel a “passion” of negativity, his lawyers said in the filing. Details of what the jurors wrote is redacted.

The responses reveal “not only that a vast majority of potential jurors hold ill-will toward Mr Musk but that they are not afraid to declare it proudly and vividly to the court,” his lawyers said.

Lawyers for the shareholders have argued that Mr Musk is a celebrity who garners media attention around the globe – much of it negative – and that his presence on Twitter being partly to blame for that.

A hearing on Mr Musk’s request to move the case is scheduled for Friday and the trial is set to begin Jan 17. BLOOMBERG