Elon Musk Says He Can’t Get fair Trial in California, Wants Texas Instead

Elon Musk has requested that a federal judge move a shareholder lawsuit trial out of San Francisco because he claims that hostile local media coverage has prejudiced potential jurors against him.

Instead, Musk's attorneys contend that the trial should be transferred to the federal court in the western district of Texas in a filing submitted late Friday, less than two weeks before it was scheduled to start on January 17. That region includes Austin, the state capital, which is where Musk moved Tesla, his electric vehicle startup, in late 2021.

The shareholder action is a result of Musk's tweets from August 2018 in which he claimed to have enough finance to take Tesla private at $420 per share. This announcement led to significant price volatility for Tesla's stock.

Judge Edward Chen declared Musk's tweets to be misleading and careless in a decision that was favourable to the shareholders last spring.

If relocating the trial is not an option, Musk's attorneys want it postponed until the backlash against the billionaire's acquisition of Twitter has subsided.

In a court document, attorney Alex Spiro said that "over the past few months, the neighbourhood media has flooded this district with biassed and unfavourable reports about Musk."

According to Spiro, those press reports have accused Musk directly of being to fault for recent employment losses at Twitter and have even suggested that the layoffs may have been illegal.

The request came in at the last minute, and the shareholders' attorneys highlighted that, "Musk's fears are unwarranted and his move is meritless."

Attorney Nicholas Porritt stated in an email that "the Northern District of California is the right venue for this litigation and where it has been actively litigated for over four years."

The filing by Musk's lawyers also mentions that since he bought Twitter in late October, the firm has laid off around 1,000 people in the San Francisco area.

“A substantial portion of the jury pool ... is likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies as individual prospective jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted,” the filing said.

According to the lawsuit, the mayor of San Francisco and other local politicians have also condemned Musk for the layoffs.