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Elon Musk's Lawyers Appear More Competent Than Elon Musk

Elon Musk probably didn't defame anybody when he was being a jerk on Twitter.

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Elon Musk (Photo by Diego Donamaria/Getty Images for SXSW)

I’m not going to lie, I want to see Elon Musk get got. I do not worship at the altar of incredibly rich f**ks who get to say and do whatever they want while facing no consequences. And I do not think a Muskian future where rich people get to live in space and the rest of us have to fight it out on this decaying planet is a useful aspiration.

But, my zeal to see Musk face consequences does not extend to mangling the law in order to make it happen. Recently, Musk was hit with a defamation lawsuit over some damn fool comments he made on Twitter. His lawyers have now responded in a motion to dismiss and, unfortunately, they have the far better case.

Musk was sued by British cave explored Vernon Unsworth after Musk called him a “pedo guy” on Twitter. It was a dumb, hurtful thing to say. Musk has a huge platform and Unsworth is just some guy. Musk later apologized, but also goaded Unsworth into suing him, which is the kind of thing you do when you are a rich asshole who has gotten used to living your life without the consequences that befall normal humans.

Unsworth did sue, but sadly Musk has a pretty good argument against the defamation claim against him. From his motion to dismiss:

Right. Goddamn it, this is right. No reasonable reader of Musk’s Twitter account would believe that Musk actually knew anything about Unsworth.

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There’s also the problem that Twitter is basically a fact-free zone and pretty much everybody knows it.

I think what Musk did was gross and mean. If Musk were on a ballot for something, I wouldn’t vote for him. If I could afford his car, I still wouldn’t buy one. If Musk were adrift because his Tesla ship ran out of dilithium between Rhea and Saturn, I would not extend a tractor beam to help him.

But he probably didn’t commit defamation on Twitter. He should probably get away with being gross and mean on Twitter.

Nobody kills Humperdinck.

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Elon Musk wants defamation suit tossed, says ‘pedo’ tweet on cave diver was not fact [NBC News]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.

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