Elon Musk has on Friday taken the witness stand to defend a 2018 tweet claiming he had lined up the financing to take Tesla private in a deal that never came close to happening.
The tweet which resulted in a $40 million settlement with securities regulators, led to a class-action lawsuit alleging he misled investors, pulling him into court for about a half hour Friday to deliver sworn testimony in front of a nine-person jury and a full room of media and other spectators.
The trial was then adjourned for the weekend and Musk was told to return Monday to answer more questions.
“I think you can absolutely be truthful (on Twitter),” Musk asserted on the stand. “But can you be comprehensive? Of course not,”
The trial stands on the question of whether a pair of tweets that Musk posted on Aug. 7, 2018, damaged Tesla shareholders during a 10-day period leading up to a Musk admission that the buyout he had envisioned wasn’t going to happen.
Appearing at the court in San Francisco before the jury that was assembled earlier this week, Musk answered questions posed by Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer representing Tesla shareholders.
Musk’s worries was from the inherent brevity on Twitter, a service that he has been running since completing his $44 billion purchase in October.
