Elon Musk testifies in his own defense during explosive opening day of defamation trial over ‘pedo guy’ tweet

elon musk courtroom sketch REUTERS/Mona Shafer Edwards

Elon Musk took the witness stand on the first day of his defamation trial Tuesday.
The Tesla CEO is being sued by Vernon Unsworth, a British diver who took part in the 2018 rescue operation that freed 12 boys and a soccer coach who were trapped inside a cave in Thailand.
Musk and Unsworth clashed at the height of that mission, after which the Tesla executive called Unsworth “pedo guy” on Twitter. Lawyers for Unsworth say that remark was widely interpreted as Musk suggesting the diver was a pedophile.
On Tuesday, Musk told the court he had been set off by an interview Unsworth gave to CNN after the rescue where he criticized Musk for trying to get involved. Musk called Unsworth’s remarks “wrong and insulting.” He testified that his “pedo guy” tweet about Unsworth “didn’t literally mean he was a pedophile.”
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LOS ANGELES — Tesla CEO Elon Musk made his first courtroom appearance on Tuesday as a defendant in a defamation case stemming from a 2018 tweet in which he called a man “pedo guy.”

The target of Musk’s insult was Vernon Unsworth, a British diver who took part in the 2018 rescue operation that freed 12 boys who were members of a soccer team and their coach after they became trapped inside a cave in Thailand.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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