Elon Musk Says 'Local Negativity' in California Will Prevent a Fair Jury Trial. He Wants to Move His Court Date to This State Instead. Attorneys for the billionaire CEO claim he received extreme backlash following his chaotic Twitter deal.

By Amanda Breen • Jan 9, 2023

Twitter owner and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk knows that some people aren't his biggest fans — and he's concerned about what that means for his upcoming jury trial over alleged Tesla stock manipulation.

Citing "local negativity" in California, where Tesla headquarters once resided, attorneys for the electric car manufacturer and Elon Musk are asking a federal judge in San Francisco to move or delay the impending trial from Northern California to Western Texas, CNBC reported.

Musk and several current and former Tesla board members will go before a jury in a shareholder class action that alleges the billionaire businessman manipulated Tesla's stock in 2018 when Musk tweeted he had "funding secured" to take the company private at $420 per share.

Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018

Afterward, Tesla shares were erratic for weeks following an initial pause on trading.

Musk later reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which a lawyer for the billionaire subsequently called a "government-imposed muzzle," per NBC News.

The Tesla CEO moved to Texas in 2020 and relocated the electric vehicle company to Austin in 2021.

Attorneys representing Musk and Tesla claim that the CEO has received extremely negative publicity in California due to his October 2022 Twitter takeover, which resulted in the volatile elimination of thousands of employees.

Amanda Breen

Entrepreneur Staff

Senior Features Writer

Amanda Breen is a senior features writer at Entrepreneur.com. She is a graduate of Barnard College and received an MFA in writing at Columbia University, where she was a news fellow for the School of the Arts.

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