Musk requests his San Francisco trial be moved to TX, citing local bias against him

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has filed a motion to move his upcoming San Francisco trial over his alleged manipulation of Tesla stock in 2018 to Texas, citing local negativity in San Francisco surrounding himself and his companies. 

The lawsuit, which accuses Musk of publicly announcing via Tweet that he had the funds to take Tesla private in 2018, causing Tesla stocks into extreme spikes and dips and resulting in a hefty fine from the SEC.

The trial is set to take place in the Bay Area on January 17, but Musk’s legal team filed a motion this week to move the trial to West Texas, claiming local media coverage in the San Francisco area had led to an overall disdain for Musk and his companies, including Twitter, and could result in a biased jury.

The motion also included a request to delay the trial in order to allow negative public sentiment over Musk’s dramatic takeover of Twitter to fade before a jury is selected.

“For the last several months, the local media have saturated this district with biased and negative stories about Mr Musk,” the filing reads.

It continues, “A substantial portion of the jury pool … is likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies as individual prospective jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted.”

The hearing to decide whether the trial will be moved is set for January 13.