Elon Musk is ‘off his rocker’ says juror screened for Tesla investor fraud trial over 2,000 tweets

A jury of nine people has been chosen for Elon Musk’s trial over claims he defrauded Tesla investors when he tweeted in 2018 about his plan to take the company private.

The judge presiding over the case set opening arguments for Wednesday in San Francisco federal court and told jurors the trial may run until February 3.

There was no shortage of criticism of Musk among prospective jurors who were screened for the case. Musk is “off his rocker,” said one. “He’s talented but crazy,” said another. A third described Musk as “arrogant and unpredictable”.

Some of the comments were from written questionnaires potential jurors filled out before coming to court on Tuesday. Others were uttered in live court, as follow-up responses to questions posed by Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, lawyers representing investors in the lawsuit, and US District Judge Edward Chen.

One woman who made it to a final round of 15 before being cut was asked by the judge about her description of the billionaire entrepreneur in the questionnaire as “not a very likeable person,” although she said Tesla’s cars are nice-looking.

Musk is “a bit arrogant and narcissistic” in how he comes off in interviews, the woman said in court. She said she works down the street from Twitter’s headquarters and her opinion about him mostly stems from how he’s managed the social media company, which he bought in October for US$44 billion. Even so, she said, she could fairly judge someone she finds unlikeable.