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Elon Musk started testifying right this moment within the jury trial over whether or not his false tweets in 2018 about taking Tesla non-public prompted traders to lose billions of {dollars}.
During testimony in a federal courtroom in San Francisco, Musk denied that his tweets trigger Tesla’s inventory worth to go up or down. “Just as a result of I tweet one thing doesn’t imply individuals imagine it or will act accordingly,” Musk mentioned in response to a query from legal professional Nicholas Porritt, who represents traders within the class-action lawsuit towards Musk.
“It’s troublesome to say that the inventory worth is linked to the tweets. There have been many instances the place I assumed if I have been to tweet one thing that the inventory worth would go down,” the Tesla CEO mentioned on the witness stand.
Musk introduced up a tweet in May 2020 wherein he wrote, “Tesla inventory worth is simply too excessive imo.” Musk right this moment mentioned Tesla’s inventory worth “counterintuitively” went up after the tweet.
“Even although I tweeted that, in my view, the inventory worth was too excessive, the inventory worth then went up from that,” Musk mentioned right this moment. “You’d suppose that if I tweeted the inventory worth was too excessive, it will go down, but it surely truly went up.”
In reality, Tesla’s inventory worth dropped 10 p.c on the day Musk made that tweet, although the value did return up the next week.
“What I’m making an attempt to say is the causal relationship is clearly not there merely due to a tweet,” Musk mentioned in court docket right this moment.
“Funding secured” tweet was false, decide dominated
The present case is primarily about two tweets Musk made on August 7, 2018. The first mentioned, “Am contemplating taking Tesla non-public at $420. Funding secured.” The second tweet mentioned, “Investor assist is confirmed. Only cause why this isn’t sure is that it is contingent on a shareholder vote.”
Musk solely testified for lower than a half hour right this moment however will retake the stand on Monday. Because of that, Porritt hasn’t but questioned Musk in regards to the particular tweets this case is about.
Judge Edward Chen already dominated that the 2 tweets about taking Tesla non-public have been false and made recklessly. Before right this moment’s testimony started, Chen reminded the jury that they have to assume that the tweets have been false.
However, the jury nonetheless should resolve whether or not Musk knew they have been unfaithful and whether or not the tweets gave cheap traders an impression of Tesla’s state of affairs that was completely different from actuality, Chen mentioned. The case is being held in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Before Musk began testifying right this moment, jurors heard from two different witnesses referred to as by plaintiffs—an investor who purchased Tesla inventory after Musk’s tweets and an professional witness who testified about administration buyouts. Musk’s testimony started close to the tip of the trial day.
During opening statements on Wednesday, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro argued that Musk’s false tweets have been simply “technical wordsmith inaccuracies” and weren’t materials to traders. Porritt mentioned that traders purchased Tesla inventory primarily based on Musk’s declare that he’d secured funding to take the corporate non-public at $420 a share.
“There was no dispute that Elon Musk lied, and there was no dispute that Tesla traders have been harm by these lies,” Porritt mentioned.
Musk: “You are trying to conflate misleading with short”
Today, Porritt requested Musk if he is conscious that his tweets about Tesla are ruled by federal securities legal guidelines requiring them to be correct, identical to press releases and Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
“Yes, however clearly, there’s a restrict if in case you have 240 characters to what you’ll be able to say. You can clearly be much more verbose in a submitting, and everybody on Twitter understands that,” Musk answered. (Twitter’s character restrict is 280 characters, however Musk repeatedly mentioned it was 240 characters throughout his testimony.)
Porritt responded, “There’s no exception in SEC guidelines primarily based on the character limitation on Twitter, is there?”
“There is not, however I feel one can’t ignore the character limitation and everybody on Twitter is conscious of the character limitation,” Musk mentioned. “I feel you’ll be able to completely be truthful. But are you able to be complete? Of course not,” Musk mentioned in response to a different query.
Musk accused Porritt of asking deceptive questions. “The tweets are truthful. They are merely quick. I feel you are attempting to conflate deceptive with quick. That’s deceptive,” Musk mentioned.
“The tweets are info that I feel the general public ought to hear,” Musk additionally mentioned.
In response to different questions, Musk additionally mentioned quick sellers within the context of why he needed to take Tesla non-public in 2018. “I imagine that quick promoting needs to be made unlawful. It is a method for unhealthy individuals on Wall Street to steal cash from small traders,” Musk mentioned.
Short sellers “need Tesla to die” and “plant false tales within the media to get the inventory to go down and do something of their energy to make the corporate die. It’s evil,” Musk mentioned.