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.

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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.