The legal drama surrounding Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues, as a district court judge has ordered him to stand trial for his remarks concerning cave diver Vernon Unsworth.
According to CNBC, Judge Stephen Wilson rejected Musk’s attempt to have the case thrown out. This isn’t too surprising given that the arguments weren’t very convincing, with Musk’s legal team trying to brand comments such as “pedo guy” and “child rapist” as insults so they couldn’t be considered defamatory.
As part of this effort, Musk claimed “Pedo guy was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up. It is synonymous with ‘creepy old man’ and is used to insult a person’s appearance and demeanor, not accuse a person of pedophilia.”
Also Read: Elon Musk Sued By Thai Cave Diver He Called A “Pedo”
However, e-mails showing Musk clearly meant to call Unsworth a pedophile have surfaced. In a message to a Buzzfeed reporter, Musk said Unsworth had “been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.” He added that “Chiang Rai is renowned for child sex-trafficking.”
That e-mail is pretty damning and, after it was published, Musk wrote to a PR person saying “I’m a f***ing idiot … It was still one of the dumber things I’ve ever done.”
Getting back to the current situation, Judge Wilson ordered Musk to stand trial on December 3rd. It will be a jury trial and Musk’s attorney told CNBC they’re looking forward to their day in court.
