Not Pictured: Him shutting up (Photo by Diego Donamaria/Getty Images for SXSW)
Elon Musk really likes talking. His penchant for not shutting up is pretty expensive too. Amid the very public displays of him begging to get sued for publicly discriminating against his potential employees or getting booed bragging about how rich he is with Dave Chappelle, it’s easy to get a sense that this guy doesn’t know when to shut up. Surprisingly — maybe as a consequence of some botched Neuralink research — the tycoon may have learned a new trick. This time, he’s asking a court to not make him yap off at trial. From Reuters:
Elon Musk has asked a judge to block a bid to question him in a lawsuit that claims he spread lies on his social media platform X that a California man participated in an extremist group’s street brawl.
The billionaire CEO in a filing in Texas state court, opens new tab on Monday called the move to depose him a “transparent effort to harass” him and drive up his litigation costs.
“Richest Man In The World Complains About Litigation Costs” sounds like an article written by The Onion, but Musk actually has a history of complaining about his representation. But it is really hard to take seriously the notion that Musk actually cares about litigation costs when he gave no fucks after causing Tesla stock to drop 9% after smoking weed with Joe Rogan or disappeared $25B after purchasing Twitter. Compared to the money Musk routinely fumbles in public, the costs of this case are pocket change:
The lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in damages for what Brody called Musk’s “astonishingly reckless conduct,” and said he should be allowed to question, opens new tab Musk as part of the lawsuit “to explore concepts of negligence and malice.”
… a million? The case is worth one of his accountant’s rounding errors and now he wants to be frugal? Give us a break, dude.
Elon Musk Asks Texas Court To Bar Deposition In Defamation Lawsuit [Reuters]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.