Elon Musk asked a federal judge Friday to move his trial for an upcoming Tesla shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco, claiming negative local news coverage has made potential jurors biased against him
Musks lawyers argued in a filing that the trial, set to begin Jan 17, should be relocated to Texas, where Tesla moved to in 2021
If a relocation for the trial isnt possible, they asked that it be postponed until negative publicity around Musks Twitter acquisition subsides, AP reports
For the last several months, the local media have saturated this district with biased and negative stories about Mr Musk,” attorney Alex Spiro wrote in the court filing obtained
He said those stories personally blamed Musk for the layoffs at Twitter, adding that about 1,000 of those who were let go were San Francisco area residents
A substantial portion of the jury pool is likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies as individual prospective jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted,” the filing states
Spiro did not immediately respond to Axios request for comment
Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit against Musk and the company, accusing him of securities fraud
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