Elon Musk Defends ‘Pedo Guy' Tweet In Defamation Trial

TESLA co-founder Elon Musk said on Tuesday he did not literally call a British caver a pedophile during their infamous spat on Twitter, telling a Los Angeles federal court that he had simply defended himself from unprovoked insults.

The tech billionaire told the defamation trial jury he had been upset when he described British diver Vernon Unsworth — who helped rescue youth soccer players trapped in a cave in Thailand — as ‘pedo guy’ in a tweet. During the July 2018 row, Unsworth had described the 48-year-old entrepreneur's proposal to build a mini-submarine to rescue the boys as a ‘PR stunt.’

“It was an unprovoked attack on a good-natured attempt to rescue the kids,” Musk, dressed in a black suit and dark tie, told the courtroom Tuesday. “I was upset.” “It was wrong and insulting and so I insulted him back,” he said.