Elon Musk spent three more hours in the witness box, defending himself against a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that he misled Tesla shareholders by tweeting that he had “funding secured”. He claimed that he had “funding secured”.
It is unlikely that the Tesla chief executive and Twitter chief executive will be called back to the witness stand in the civil trial, which is expected to last until February.
While being questioned by Alex Spiro, his attorney, the 51-year-old displayed a lot of self-deprecation, while being quizzed as a trustworthy business leader.
He sparred with Nicholas Porritt, a shareholder lawyer who had angered him earlier in the trial.
Mr Musk made no secret of his disdain for Mr Porritt by making a comment that he doubted the lawyer was protecting the best interests of Tesla shareholders. These remarks were quickly rebuked by the judge and were removed from the records. It was inappropriate, US District Judge Edward Chen said.
The trial centers on whether two tweets that Mr Musk sent on August 7, 2018, were damaging to Tesla shareholders. These tweets occurred during the 10-day period before Musk admitted that the buyout he had planned was not going ahead. These statements led to Mr Musk and Tesla reaching the $40 million settlement without admitting any wrongdoing.
