In a filing late Friday, the shareholders who are suing Elon Musk and Tesla may have an early win.
According to reporting by CNBC and Bloomberg, the filing noted that the Judge in the case concluded that Musk acted with scienter.
Scienter in this case refers to Musk knowingly making a false statement. The false statement looks to be around Musk’s claim that he had funding secured to take Tesla private.
The filing in question was from lawyers representing the shareholders suing Tesla and Musk to recover the money they lost after Musk’s tweet back in 2018.
This information came to light in a separate request by the shareholder’s lawyer. The lawyers sent in a request to the Judge to grant a temporary restraining order on Musk.
The restraining order would stop Musk from making further public remarks on the case.
Musk chatted about the case at the Ted 2022 conference earlier this week.
Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro had this to say about the filing to Bloomberg.
“Nothing will ever change the truth which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have – all that’s left some half decade later is random plaintiffs’ lawyers trying to make a buck and others trying to block that truth from coming to light all to the detriment of free speech.”
For this case, a trial date is set for May 31, 2022, but that could change between now and then.
