Bloomberg News reported on the 7th (local time) that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has asked the court to have a trial in western Texas, rather than San Francisco, California, in a fraud case brought by shareholders.
Musk argued that he could not get a fair trial because San Francisco's jury and local media were hostile to him.
In particular, Musk's side was concerned that the negative prejudice in the region may have increased as he carried out mass layoffs after acquiring Twitter last fall.
The logic is that even if you are not a member of the jury, there may be acquaintances who have been affected by the dismissal, such as relatives and friends.
According to a request that Musk, through his attorneys, filed the night before in federal district court in San Francisco, a significant portion of the San Francisco-area jury "likely has a personal bias against Musk as a result of his recent layoffs from one of his companies." said.
"Musk has a much better chance of getting a fair trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, where, unlike in San Francisco, he has never been the subject of excessive and inflammatory media coverage," the defense team said.
Musk was sued in August 2018 for causing billions of dollars in damages to shareholders by tweeting that he would delist Tesla and turn it into a private company.
However, Musk refutes that he did not deceive the shareholders, saying that he was promised financial support for the conversion of a private company from the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund at the time, but he was hit in the back.
The trial is scheduled to begin on the 17th.