Allison Robbert/Pool via AP
Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
Guess I’ll go eat worms!– 20th century children’s song
Elon Musk may have been contemplating snacking on a few earthworms after a brutal treatment by a jury pool in San Francisco, with almost half of the prospective jurors being disqualified because they declared their hatred for the tech CEO — one even went so far as to say he wanted to see Musk in prison.
The case stems from a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by investors in Twitter, the predecessor to Musk’s X platform, who allege he violated federal securities laws with his months of public indecision over purchasing the company as a scheme to drive down the the price of shares before he completed the purchase in October 2022, causing the investors financial harm.
According to Bloomberg Law, the trial is expected to last about three weeks, and likely witnesses to be called to the stand include Musk and former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.
But before the trial can begin, a jury must be selected, and Judge Charles R. Breyer had a tougher time than usual, due to the notorious reputation of the defendant.
Breyer, a Clinton appointee and younger brother of former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, began jury selection by commenting to the lawyers for both sides that Musk had achieved a level of fame that was “like the President of the United States,” and even if they “search the entire country,” it would probably be nearly impossible to find someone who did not have some sort of opinion about Musk.
“As a public figure he will excite strong views, and for him in particular, people have strong views,” Breyer added. “The question is, and courts are very clear about this, is whether they can set them aside.”
Finding nine jurors who could put their opinions about Musk aside to be properly fair and impartial took over five hours.
Out of the jury pool of 93, Breyer dismissed 40 of them right off the bat when he asked who did not feel they could set aside their biases and they raised their hands.
The questionnaire filled out by all prospective jurors revealed many of them voiced negative opinions about Musk, the companies he owns, or his political activities connected to President Donald Trump’s administration and his short-lived but highly controversial involvement with DOGE.
According to Bloomberg Law, “One prospective juror stated that he could be impartial in a civil trial, but that if this were a criminal trial he would have a ‘moral obligation’ to convict Musk and send him to prison.”
Unsurprisingly, that juror was eliminated, as were one man who said he could be impartial but in his questionnaire declared that he disagreed “with the existence of billionaires,” and a woman who said she hated how Musk had conducted mass layoffs among Twitter’s content moderators.
Stephen Broome, one of Musk’s attorneys, lamented to the court that there were “so many people” in the jury pool “who hate him so much that we’re becoming desensitized,” commenting that normally, if a prospective juror said in the questionnaire they “hated” the defendant, “there would be no question” that juror would be dismissed.
The trial is scheduled to begin on March 2.
The post Almost Half of Jury Pool in Musk Trial Tossed After ‘So Many’ Said They ‘Hate’ Him first appeared on Mediaite.
