Thread by @WillOremus

I'm in a chancery court in Wilmington, Delaware this morning for @elonmusk's testimony defending Tesla's 2016 acquisition of SolarCity for $2.6B. Musk chaired both companies at the time; some Tesla investors allege the deal amounted to a bailout of SolarCity.

@elonmusk Plaintiffs' attorney Randy Baron started his questioning of Musk by playing clips of Musk saying in prior depositions that the lawsuit was "wasting everyone's time," and that the next few quarters would vindicate the SolarCity deal. The next few quarters, we now know, did not.

@elonmusk Musk is arguing that the reason SolarCity's growth didn't take off as planned following the acquisition is that Tesla ended up in crisis to meet deadlines on the Model 3, and had to shift focus. And then the reason it didn't take off after *that* is because of the pandemic.

@elonmusk Now Musk is arguing once again that the solar part of Tesla's business is just about to take off, as the pandemic lifts. The plaintiffs' attorney is trying to establish that he has a pattern of making promises like this and then not delivering.

Trial is taking a short break so I’m going to get a snack. I thought the bailiff said there was a @DuckDonuts here and got excited but it turns out he said Dunkin’ Donuts :(

I was politely but firmly informed that I’m not allowed to live-tweet from the courtroom at the Musk trial here in Delaware. Apologies to anyone trying to keep track of what’s going on in this trial. I can tweet from outside the courtroom during breaks.

The plaintiffs’ attorney turned his attention to Musk’s degree of control over Tesla. He’s trying to establish that Musk was a unilateral chief with the power to orchestrate a deal to his own benefit without substantial oversight from the board or anyone else.

Baron is quoting liberally from Musk’s own tweets and statements to suggest that he ran Tesla with a free hand, bullying or “rage-firing” those who tried to stand in his way. Musk officially changing his title to at Tesla to “Technoking” probably doesn’t help his cause here.

At one point Baron played clips of Musk belittling and insulting him (Baron) in past depositions to show Musk treats people with derision.

Musk calmly stood by his past insults, and told Baron today point-blank, in court, “I think you are a bad human being.”

Baron keeps wanting Musk to confine himself to direct yes-no answers. Musk nearly always rejects the premise (often justifiably imo, though not always) and answers with nuanced digressions. Baron gets exasperated, says they’ll never get through the testimony if he keeps that up.

Baron started his questioning of Musk this morning by gesturing to three mammoth notebooks full of documents, and said, “I want to give you fair warning, Mr. Musk—we’re going to be here a while.”

Felt like I was in one of those old Snickers commercials.

As the trial resumed this afternoon, Musk faced questions about SolarCity’s financial health at the time Tesla bought it. Specifically, whether Musk knew and concealed the degree to which SolarCity’s growth was stalling, in order to push through a deal that would bail it out.

Here’s our news report from today’s rather entertaining Elon Musk trial. To be continued tomorrow…

https://twitter.com/gerritd/status/1414681708817960968

This is good context for Musk calling the lawyer a “bad human being.” It was part of a highly personal exchange that the lawyer, Baron, seemed to welcome—it made him look bad, but was worth it to him to make Musk look unhinged.

https://twitter.com/beyondarmonia/status/1414632934296854528