1/ Revised thread: Why do people care so much about the photo of Elon Musk with Jeffrey Epstein’s “networker” Ghislaine Maxwell next to him? washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-s…
… Musk says she photo bombed him. A recap.
… Musk says she photo bombed him. A recap.
2/ Last year, NYT reported that sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein claimed a serious connection to Musk & said he was doing work for Musk’s biggest company, Tesla, in 2018. nytimes.com/2019/08/12/bus……
Musk & Tesla flatly denied it. But questions remained.
Musk & Tesla flatly denied it. But questions remained.
3/ Context: Celeb CEO Musk had an eyebrow raising history of dating much younger celebs, once attended a "sex party" thrown by a Tesla board member (per 'Brotopia'medium.com/@paulbiggar/th…) and called Vern Unsworth a "pedo guy," resulting in a trial that Musk won.
4/ At the time Musk called Unsworth a pedo, the caver was around 63 and his partner was around 40. Musk's current GF, very successful musician Grimes, is 17 years younger than him. metro.co.uk/2018/09/05/gir…
5/ They're adults. But after the "pedo guy" trial, and after reports surfaced about Musk's connection to Epstein, the Tesla CEO gets confronted on perceived hypocrisy and trolled on the age difference all the time. newyorker.com/culture/annals…
6/ Last night, followers were pissed off at the way I brought up the 17 year gap between Musk and Grimes. Fact is their relationship inspired massive scrutiny of Musk, his "pedo guy" comments, proclivities and Epstein connection. Love who you love, consenting adults!
7/ I also posted that Elon Musk’s dad, weirdly, had a child with his own stepdaughter 42 years his junior. A reader asked me to emphasize that Elon has denounced his father, over and over. Great point. Here’s some recommended reading:
rollingstone.com/culture/cultur…
rollingstone.com/culture/cultur…
8/ Speaking of his fam --Elon Musk’s crew reacted strongly over the weekend when The Nation reporter @kenklippenstein encouraged Twitter followers to demand answers, and troll Elon with a photo of him & Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s alleged co-conspirator.
9/Musk’s ex, actress Talulah Riley, weighed in. She acknowledged that they visited Epstein and isn't sure if she may have met Maxwell. Her account seems to differ from a statement Musk previously gave Vanity Fair.
10/ Earlier, Musk said they visited Epstein because Riley wanted to do so for a book project. (This weekend, Riley said Elon’s handlers were just taking them around.)
vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/j…
vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/j…
11/ There's a report about Kimbal Musk, board member at Tesla & SpaceX too. Sources told BI that Epstein intro’d him to a GF in '11. Then, Epstein got a tour of SpaceX in '12. Now, Elon Musk says, to the best of his knowledge, the tour didn’t happen.
businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epstei…
businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epstei…
12/ There are a ton of other details on Epstein connections in tech, politics, money, higher ed, etc. that I am not covering here. A good starting place to learn about Epstein’s hooks into & influence over tech elites is here:
newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
13/ Seems tabloid-y? Ok. It’s serious, too. Nobody with Epstein’s record & rep should have had access to Musk or his inner circle ideally. SpaceX is a defense contractor, Tesla a huge employer. Nat'l security, the safety of women & girls would be at stake. businessinsider.com/elon-musk-deni…
14/ Big ?s remain unanswered: why was it ever acceptable for Elon Musk (and myriad tech CEOs) to hang out with a convicted sex criminal? Did Epstein ever try to invest his or his associates’ money through Musks' ventures? Would Musk or his team have known of, or allowed this?
15/ Asking questions online and off is part of my job. Questions are not allegations. Reporters in 2020 use every tool from social media to encrypted email to shoeleather and late night (socially distanced) meetings.
16/ If you know how Epstein and alleged co-conspirator Maxwell did their deeds, I hope you are safe and can speak out. Justice is slow and only happens if somebody testifies. Whistleblower athletes brought Larry Nassar and his enablers to light.
17/ Epstein was a convicted criminal. If you were there & know what really happened before, during and after Epstein and Maxwell were reportedly in contact with the Musks, and more, get in touch. DM's open or email: lora.kolodny@nbcuni.com
18/ Critical feedback welcome. Trolls & apparent bots get blocked without hesitation. As for the barrage of threats and insults against me & other reporters asking questions the public is asking us- if you want to remain ignorant and have no curiosity, I feel sorry for you.
19/ Reporters have no control over whether answers we get, info we verify is going to be flattering, devastating or anything in between to a person or company we cover. You should want reporters looking into this, especially if you think Musk was falsely accused in prior reports.
20/ Reminder: in reporting (as with scientific studies) extraordinary claims— like one of abject wrongdoing, or complete innocence— would require extraordinary evidence. If you don’t have it you don’t have a story.
