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The
three-man, five-woman U.S. District Court jury will likely get
the case before noon on Friday, after a federal judge instructs
them on the law and attorneys for both men deliver closing
statements.
The jurors will be asked to decide by unanimous vote if Musk,
48, defamed Vernon Unsworth with three July 15, 2018 tweets, and
if so how much he must pay in damages.
Legal experts are closely watching the proceedings, which is
believed to be the first major defamation lawsuit brought by a
private individual to go to trial over a tweet.
Unsworth, 64, on Thursday declined to apologize for a July 13,
2018, CNN interview in which he said Musk's offer of a
mini-submarine to help rescue a boys' soccer team from a flooded
Thailand cave was a "PR stunt" and the wealthy entrepreneur
could "stick his submarine where it hurts."
Unsworth said his insult was "not to Mr Musk personally".
"I'm not sure how I need to apologize. It was my opinion at the
time and I stand by that opinion," he said, when cross-examined
by one of Musk's lawyers.
It was that interview which Musk has said prompted his
"off-the-cuff" tweets, in which he questioned Unsworth's role in
the cave rescue and called him a "pedo guy," with no evidence.
Unsworth has testified the tweets harmed his reputation by
branding him a pedophile and a liar, leaving him "humiliated,
ashamed, dirtied."
He seeks unspecified damages from Musk, who told the court this
week his net worth is around $20 billion.
The trial has revived discussion of Musk’s erratic behavior
during 2018, when he used Twitter to float a leveraged buyout
proposal for Tesla that was scuttled, ultimately paying $20
million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission
complaint.
For most of 2019, Musk, who has nearly 30 million Twitter
followers, has largely kept his public comments focused on
Tesla’s new models and improved profitability and on the
technical progress of his aerospace company, SpaceX.
To win the case, Unsworth must prove Musk was negligent in
publishing a falsehood that clearly identified him and caused
him harm. He does not need to show Musk acted with "actual
malice," which is much tougher to prove.
(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb; Writing
by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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