Elon Musk, the billionaire, rushed to Twitter late Thursday to refute charges in a news article that he sexually assaulted a flight attendant on a private plane in 2016. Musk’s SpaceX paid $250,000 in 2018 to settle a sexual harassment allegation from an anonymous private jet flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself to her, according to Business Insider. According to the story, a friend of the flight attendant was cited.
According to the story, the buddy gave a statement as part of the private settlement procedure. The companion and flight attendant were not identified by Business Insider. “I dare this liar who says their buddy saw me being “exposed” to explain just one item, anything at all (scars, tattoos, etc.) that isn’t well known. She won’t be able to since it never took place “Musk sent out a tweet.
The Business Insider account could not be verified by Reuters. Musk and SpaceX did not reply to requests for comment from Reuters either the Business Insider piece or Musk’s tweets. The website reached out to Musk for comment on the news around 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, according to John Cook, an editor at Business Insider. Musk tweeted around 20 minutes later that “attacks on me will accelerate considerably in the next months.”
The following day, the Business Insider report was published. According to the allegation, during an in-flight massage, Musk massaged the flight attendant’s thigh and promised to buy her a horse if she would “do more,” according to a friend of the flight attendant reported by Business Insider. According to Business Insider, the flight attendant became convinced that her rejection to accept Musk’s invitation had harmed her chances of working at SpaceX, prompting her to consult a lawyer in 2018.
According to Business Insider, the rocket firm reached an out-of-court settlement that included a nondisclosure agreement that banned the flight attendant from discussing it. Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and is in the middle of a heated bid to purchase Twitter, said on Wednesday that he would vote Republican rather than Democrat, fearing a “dirty tricks campaign against me.”
Musk was described in the Business Insider article as claiming that the flight attendant’s account was a “politically driven attack piece” with “a lot more to this tale.”
“The assaults on me should be regarded through a political lens — this is their regular (despicable) script — but nothing will dissuade me from fighting for a decent future and your freedom to free speech,” Musk tweeted on Thursday evening. He did not expressly cite the claims in the Business Insider report in his first tweet. “And, for the record,” Musk said in another tweet, “those outlandish charges are totally incorrect.” He also claimed that the Business Insider report was intended to derail the Twitter deal.
Source: CBC News