Dozens of jurors have been dismissed from tech billionaire Elon Musk’s civil trial regarding his actions during his takeover of Twitter, now known as X, after his own lawyer admitted so many Americans “hate him.”
A group of investors is suing Musk in a San Francisco federal court for allegedly making misleading statements about bot accounts on Twitter, causing its stock price to plummet. His comments were made during his drama-filled $44 million acquisition of Twitter.
Nine jurors were picked out of a pool of 93 Americans in a selection process that took more than five hours Thursday, Bloomberg Law reports.
Nearly 40 prospective jurors were quickly removed after they said they would not be able to push aside their biases.
Musk’s attorney, Stephen Broome, raised concerns about the ire prospective jurors had toward his client.
Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the richest person in the world. He thrust himself into the political spotlight during his stint as the head of President Donald Trump’s federal workforce-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.
“We have so many people in the venire who hate him so much that we’re becoming desensitized,” Broome said, per Bloomberg Law. He explained that if a prospective juror said they hated the defendant in any other case, they would definitely be eliminated.
But U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer said this isn’t like any other case, likening Musk to “the president of the United States,” according to reports.
“He is a public figure, and as a public figure, he will excite views, strong views. The question is whether or not they can set them aside,” Breyer said.
Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter in April 2022. The deal eventually went through in October of that year, but not before Musk made his indecision over the acquisition publicly known.
On May 13, 2022, Musk tweeted that the deal was on hold “pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.” Twitter shares fell a staggering 9.6 percent that day.
The class action trial between Musk and Twitter investors is expected to begin on March 2 and last for two weeks.
