Tesla CEO Elon Musk is coif to head to trial after this year over a series of uncollectible tweet in which he described a diver as “ pedo hombre ” after the man criticize his plan for saving a young soccer squad trap in a cave organization in Thailand .
The tidings comes after Vernon Unsworth — who helped in therescue effortto free the son from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system of rules last summer — filed a defamation suit in September over Musk ’s ingeminate title that the underwater diver was a pedophile . In December , lawyers for Muskfiled a motionto have the cause brush off , argue that “ over - the - top insults are not statements of fact . ”
Thatmotion was deniedby U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson , theVergereported Friday , in part because of the mode that Musk communicated the averment , both on Twitter as well as in electronic mail toBuzzFeed News .
Image: Jae C. Hong (AP)
Wilson determined that given “ the totality of the circumstance — admit the general linguistic context of Defendant ’s statements , the specific circumstance of the instruction , and the statements ’ susceptibleness of being establish true or delusive — a sane factfinder could easy conclude that Defendant ’s statement , as plead in the Complaint , implied asseveration of documentary fact . ”
A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately generate a asking for comment .
This fiasco begin last summer after Musk became involved in the harrowing effort to rescue 12 boys and their association football private instructor from the cave system in Thailand . Unsworth called Musk ’s manifest involvement with the effort a “ praseodymium stunt ” and claim the billionaire ’s divisiveminiature submarine concepthad “ dead no chance of work . ” In a bizarre and seemingly unwarranted string of since - delete tweet , Musk then accused the diver of being a pedophile — a call he would continue to double down on over the line of months .
“ Never envision this British expat guy who lives in Thailand ( sus ) at any point when we were in the caves , ” hetweetedin July . In a follow - up tweet , Musk refer to Unsworth as “ pedo guy rope ” before afterwards tweeting : “ Bet ya a bless dollar it ’s true . ”
In a series of emails toBuzzFeed Newsin September , Musk told the outlet to “ call multitude you know in Thailand , find out what ’s actually get going on and stop defending child rapists , you fucking asshole . ”
A trial is scheduled for October 22 .
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