Musk: Pedophile Claim Was Just an “Imaginative Attack”

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk says a defamation lawsuit filed against him in California for suggesting that a rescue worker in Thailand was a pedophile should be tossed out because no reasonable person would take the claim seriously.

The incident involved a boys’ soccer team that became trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand last July. As authorities scrambled to find a way to free the 12 boys, Musk provided a mini-submarine. Vernon Unsworth, a rescue team diver, dismissed the device as a PR stunt with “absolutely no chance of working” in the sometimes extremely narrow cave passages.

Musk responded with multiple tweets based on what he described as Unsworth’s “indefensible and baseless attacks,” including one that called Unsworth a “pedo guy.” Musk’s outburst closely followed several others against critics, investors, oil companies, the United Auto Workers union and news media.

Musk soon deleted the tweets and apologized to Unsworth. But he then repeated and expanded the original claim, prompting Unsworth to sue Musk for libel in September.

Musk request for dismissal brushes off exchanges as “imaginative attacks” that are protected as opinion by the First Amendment right to free speech. Unsworth’s attorney calls Musk’s argument a “fanciful” position that, if accepted, would block redress for all false and defamatory attacks published on the internet.”