Musk says he can’t get fair trial in California, wants Texas

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk has urged a federal choose to shift a trial in a shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco as a result of he says damaging native media protection has biased potential jurors in opposition to him.

As a substitute, in a submitting submitted late Friday — lower than two weeks earlier than the trial was set to start on Jan. 17 — Musk’s legal professionals argue that the trial must be moved to the federal courtroom within the western district of Texas. That district consists of the state capital of Austin, which is the place Musk relocated his electrical automobile firm, Tesla, in late 2021.

If a transfer is not doable, Musk’s legal professionals need the trial postponed till damaging publicity concerning Musk’s buy of Twitter has died down.

“For the final a number of months, the native media have saturated this district with biased and damaging tales about Mr. Musk,” legal professional Alex Spiro wrote in a courtroom submitting. These gadgets have personally blamed Musk for current layoffs at Twitter, Spiro wrote, and have charged that the job cuts might have even violated legal guidelines.

The shareholder lawsuit stems from Musk’s tweets in August 2018 when he stated he had ample financing to take Tesla personal at $420 a share, an announcement that precipitated heavy volatility in Tesla’s share worth.

The shareholders’ attorneys didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In a victory for the shareholders final spring, Decide Edward Chen dominated that Musk’s tweets have been false and reckless.

The submitting by his attorneys additionally notes that Twitter has laid off about 1,000 residents within the San Francisco space since he bought the corporate in late October.

“A considerable portion of the jury pool … is prone to maintain a private and materials bias in opposition to Mr. Musk on account of current layoffs at certainly one of his corporations as particular person potential jurors — or their mates and family — might have been personally impacted,” the submitting stated.

Musk has additionally been criticized by San Francisco’s mayor and different native officers for the job cuts, the submitting stated.