Elon Musk's defense against diver's lawsuit: 'Pedo guy' just means 'creepy old man'

The Tesla CEO wants the defamation lawsuit dismissed.
By Matt Binder  on 
Elon Musk's defense against diver's lawsuit: 'Pedo guy' just means 'creepy old man'
Elon Musk's defense team wants a British cave diver's defamation lawsuit against the Tesla CEO dismissed. Musk called the diver a "pedo guy" on Twitter. Credit: Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

Elon Musk’s bizarre feud with a British cave diver, who he called a “pedo guy,” took a strange turn as the eccentric billionaire seeks to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought against him.

In court documents filed on Monday, Elon Musk’s defense team argues that the suit filed by diver Vernon Unsworth should be thrown out as Musk’s tweet calling the diver a “pedo guy” does not constitute defamation.

Among his team's many arguments, Musk claims that he was not insinuating that Unsworth was a pedophile when he called him a “pedo guy” on Twitter.

“Mr. Musk testified that 'pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa during his youth,” says the filing. “It is synonymous with 'creepy old man' and aimed at mocking a person’s appearance and demeanor, not an accusation of pedophilia.”

In the filing, Musk’s team claims Unsworth cannot meet the “high burden” of proving defamation.

“There is no evidence that Mr. Musk intended or believed that his July 15 tweets, that Mr. Unsworth was 'sus' or 'pedo guy,' would be interpreted as fact. To the contrary, the evidence is that Mr. Musk believed and intended his statements to be read as what they were: bare insults,” it continues.

“He intended his statements about Mr. Unsworth to be schoolyard taunts and not representations of fact. By referring to Mr. Unsworth as 'sus,' he did not intend to convey any specific facts capable of being proven true or false, but that Mr. Unsworth was 'just a weird guy' or some 'creepy-ass expat looking for press.'"

Along with his claim that he didn’t mean “pedophile” when calling Unsworth a “pedo guy,” Musk also argues in the filing that he had reason to believe Unsworth was a “pedo guy.”

Musk’s decision to call the diver that name was informed by alleged information gathered by a private investigator that Musk hired to look into Unsworth.

"The investigator reported that Mr. Unsworth was a fixture in Pattaya Beach, Thailand, a locale notorious for prostitution and child trafficking, that he had a taste for young Thai girls, that he whore-mongered his way through the go-go bars of Thailand, that his only friends were his 'sexpat' peers, and that he married his Thai wife when she was a teenager, after starting a relationship when she was a young girl," claims Musk’s team in the filing.

"It is synonymous with 'creepy old man' ..."

In a comment to Reuters, a lawyer representing Unsworth said the diver is “a good man whose efforts saved the lives of 13 people.” His team will be replying to Musk's latest court filing in the coming weeks.

Elon Musk is currently the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX.

Last summer, Musk and Unsworth started publicly feuding over the tech billionaire’s involvement in the rescue of a Thai boys soccer team that was trapped. Unsworth, a professional cave diver, criticized Musk’s plan to save the boys with a rescue submarine he had built, calling it "a PR stunt" that "had absolutely no chance of working."

“Never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand (sus) at any point when we were in the caves,” tweeted Musk. “We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”

“Bet ya a signed dollar its true,” Musk later added as a Twitter reply to a user referring to his “pedo guy” comment.

Musk deleted the tweets and apologized. In emails with BuzzFeed, however, the Tesla CEO later egged the diver on to sue him.

The filing makes reference to Musk’s apology to Unsworth.

“On July 18, Mr. Musk apologized for using heated language in his debate with Mr. Unsworth: 'my words were spoken in anger after Mr. Unsworth said several untruths & suggested I engage in a sexual act with the mini-sub, which had been built as an act of kindness & according to specifications from the dive team leader.'"

Previously, Unsworth said Musk could "stick his submarine where it hurts.”

As for the “signed dollar" tweet, Musk’s team attempts to explain that away too.

“There is no evidence, let alone clear and convincing evidence, that Mr. Musk’s tweet, 'betcha a signed dollar it is true' was intended to suggest that his prior statements were factual. The tweet was a 'flippant comment' that proposed a low stakes bet of a single dollar,” the filing claims.

“By proposing such an insubstantial wager, Mr. Musk was not taking a strong position as to whether his statements were true, or even capable of being proven true, but meant to convey that 'obviously I’m not certain about this' and that he merely found Mr. Unsworth 'suspicious.'"

Musk previously attempted to dismiss the lawsuit late last year arguing that the accusations couldn’t have been defamatory because they were made on Twitter. A judge rejected the motion to dismiss and scheduled a trial for later this year.

This won’t be the first time this year that Musk finds himself in court over his tweets. Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee took the Tesla CEO to court over his tweets that violated a previous settlement agreement with the committee.

It seems like Musk’s very erratic and weird 2018 keeps coming back to haunt him.

Topics Elon Musk


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