Elon Musk’s Defense In ‘Pedo Guy’ Defamation Suit: Slur Meant Something Else

Elon Musk’s legal team in the defamation suit filed against him by a British man who Musk called “pedo guy” in a tweet said he didn’t mean to accuse him of being a pedophile as he had a different understanding of the term. The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX also hired a private investigator to look for evidence of unsavory behavior by the man who’d publicly criticized him, the legal documents show. 

Attorneys representing Musk in the case brought by diver Vernon Unsworth are seeking a summary judgment to have the matter dismissed by federal District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, arguing there was no defamation in Musk’s 2018 tweets, according to filings that posted on Monday. Currently, a hearing on the matter is set for October 28 at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Musk was angered after Unsworth, who assisted in the rescue of a youth soccer team trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, mocked the mini-submarine SpaceX engineers built to get the boys out. Unsworth, in an interview with CNN, called Musk’s plan a “PR stunt” that “had absolutely no chance of working.” 

Musk responded with a series of tweets on July 15, 2018 criticizing Unsworth and claimed he’d been removed from the rescue team. One ended by saying “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.” He doubled down on his comments in August 2018 in emails to a BuzzFeed reporter  calling Unsworth a “child rapist” and suggesting he’d had sexual relations with a 12-year-old girl in Thailand.

“The term ‘pedo guy’ was a common insult used during Mr. Musk’s youth in South Africa, which he understood was synonymous with ‘creepy old man’ and aimed at insulting one’s appearance and demeanor,” his attorney Alex Spiro said in a court filing. “The term ‘pedo guy’ as used and understood by Mr. Musk is not an accusation of acts of pedophilia.”

Whether the judge finds that argument to be plausible remains to be seen. In May, Wilson rejected earlier efforts by Musk’s team to have Unsworth’s suit dismissed. Unsworth’s September 2018 lawsuit seeks $75,000 in compensatory damages as well as unspecified punitive damages.

Matt Wood, an attorney representing Unsworth, wasn’t immediately available to comment on the matter. 

Additionally, lawyers for Musk said Jared Birchall, “president of Musk’s home office,” hired private investigator James Howard “to conduct an investigation of Mr. Unsworth in the United Kingdom and Thailand on Mr. Musk’s behalf.” Howard is a former British military and intelligence officer who’d previously performed “sensitive work” for high-profile clients including Microsoft Cofounder Paul Allen and Hungarian financier George Soros, according to the filing. 

Howard was paid more than $50,000 for his investigation of Unsworth, which doesn’t appear to have uncovered hard evidence of the behavior suggested by Musk.