Elon Musk asks judge to move shareholder’s lawsuit from San Francisco to Texas for fair trial

Elon Musk claims he can’t get a fair trial in San Francisco and wants the trial for a shareholder’s lawsuit over a series of 2018 tweets moved out of the Bay Area, according to a report.

The Tesla mogul wants the lawsuit — accusing him of causing volatility in Twitter’s share price after he claimed he had enough financing to take the company private — heard in West Texas, which includes the state capital of Austin, where he moved Tesla’s headquarters in 2021. 

If not, the trial should be delayed until the negative media coverage surrounding Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter calms down.

“For the last several months, the local media have saturated this district with biased and negative stories about Mr. Musk,” attorney Alex Spiro wrote in a court filing Friday. 

Spiro noted news articles have blamed Musk for the recent layoffs at Twitter, which has cut more than half of its 7,500 employees since his acquisition in late October — including roughly 1,000 employees in the San Francisco area. He also wrote media coverage has suggested that the layoffs may have violated the law. 

Musk had claimed he could take Twitter private at $420 a share. The move blindsided Wall Street and caused severe stock price volatility.

Tesla shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit against Musk, accusing him of securities fraud and arguing the tweets were intended to manipulate the company’s stock price and squeeze short-sellers 

Last year, a federal judge ruled in favor of the shareholders, calling the tweets false and reckless. 

With Post wires.