Musk lawyer argues false tweets were just “technical wordsmith inaccuracies”
Enlarge / Alex Spiro, attorney for Elon Musk, arrives for the shareholder lawsuit trial at federal court in San Francisco on January 18, 2023. (credit: Getty Images)
The jury trial in Tesla investors' class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk proceeded today with opening statements in a San Francisco federal courtroom. Plaintiff's attorney Nicholas Porritt told the jury the case was brought "because Elon Musk, Tesla's chairman and chief executive officer, who is not in court today but you will see him sitting right there in the witness box, lied. And his lies caused regular people like Glen Littleton to lose millions and millions of dollars."
Porritt pointed out that Judge Edward Chen already ruled Musk's statements in August 2018 about having "funding secured" to take Tesla private were false and made recklessly. The case is being held in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Because of the judge's ruling and instructions that will be given to the jury, "you are to assume that every word, every part of this tweet is false," Porritt said.