- Elon Musk faces trial over his 2022 Twitter purchase.
- Forty of ninety three jurors were dismissed for bias.
- Both critics and admirers were removed from the pool.
Few executives draw quite as much heat as Elon Musk, and now the legal system gets its turn. The Tesla boss is heading to court in San Francisco over his October 2022 purchase of Twitter, and even assembling a jury has proved tricky.
Finding nine people willing, and able to judge the case impartially was no small task, with dozens of prospective jurors cut loose because they already had firm views about the billionaire.
According to Bloomberg Law, Judge Charles R. Breyer spent five hours trimming a pool of 93 candidates down to just nine. Forty were swiftly dismissed after admitting they could not set aside their personal biases in a case involving Musk.
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Musk’s legal team pushed back. His attorney, Stephen Broome of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, objected to several jurors who claimed they could overlook their negative views.
Biases Put On Record
“We have so many people in the venire who hate him so much that we’re becoming desensitized,” Broome said.
Questionnaires completed by prospective jurors made it clear that many already held negative views about Musk, his companies, and his political ties to the Trump administration, including his involvement with DOGE last year. One man went so far as to admit he could stay impartial in a civil case, but in a criminal trial he would feel a “moral obligation” to convict Musk and send him to prison. Unsurprisingly, that ended his run.
Admiration proved just as disqualifying. One woman described Musk as a “brilliant scientist,” but after conceding she would feel nervous for the investors suing him if selected, she too was dismissed.
As Famous As Trump
Before jury selection began, Judge Breyer acknowledged the obvious. Musk is as famous as the “President of the United States,” and finding someone without an opinion about him would be nearly impossible, even if they were to “search the entire country,” Bloomberg Law reports.
“As a public figure he will excite strong views, and for him in particular, people have strong views,” Breyer added. “The question is, and courts are very clear about this, is whether they can set them aside.”
The trial is scheduled to begin on March 2. It follows a class action lawsuit filed shortly after Musk completed his Twitter purchase. Investors allege that his very public flip-flopping on social media in the lead-up to the deal was an intentional scheme to drive down Twitter’s share price before he finalized the $44 billion acquisition.
