A federal judge has denied Elon Musk’s request to move his upcoming trial of a group of Tesla shareholders to Texas Bloomberg (about The edge). On Jan. 7, less than two weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin on Jan. 17, Musk’s legal team petitioned to have the trial moved out of California, claiming that “a significant portion” of the potential San Francisco jury was likely biased against the trial Billionaire partly due to Twitter’s continued layoffs.
The upcoming civil lawsuit stems from a class action lawsuit related to “false and misleading” statements Musk made in 2018 when he said he was considering privatizing Tesla for $420 a share. Musk’sfinancing securedThe tweet caught the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, eventually leading to a $40 million settlement.
Shareholders involved in the lawsuit allege Musk’s tweet affected Tesla’s stock price. They are asking the court to order Musk to stop his “public campaign to present a contradictory and false narrative” of the episode. They say he should also be held liable for possible damages. The group won an early victory last spring when District Judge Edward Chen concluded that Musk “recklessly made the statements with knowledge of their falsity.”
