Elon Musk's Lawyer Struggles To Find Acceptable Jurors For Lawsuit Because 'So Many People...Hate Him So Much'

"There are certainly some people who like the image of Elon Musk that they have in their heads, but no one actually likes Elon Musk as a person. The man is so unlikable, even Donald Trump got sick of him, and that man almost exclusively hangs out with the worst people in the world. Sadly, being a creepy, weird loser didn't stop Musk from becoming ludicrously wealthy, but it did cause a few problems for his lawyers in a recent lawsuit over Twitter's stock price, where Law360 reports they struggled to find acceptable jurors because there are 'so many people who hate him so much.' "

"That's not a quote written by the article's author, either. It would probably be a valid claim if it were, but no, that quote comes from Musk's lawyer himself. Yikes. Eventually, they did find the nine jurors they needed to begin the trial, but it doesn't sound like it was easy. Starting with a pool of 92 prospective jurors on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer quickly sent 38 of them home for saying they couldn't promise to be fair and impartial in a trial involving Musk."

"After excusing roughly 40% of the jury pool right out of the gate, Judge Breyer continued questioning potential jurors based on their responses to the court's questionnaire, asking many of them whether they felt like their 'strong views' would prevent them from being fair and impartial. 'It can't be based on your feelings about Mr. Musk, anything that you either like or dislike,' Judge Breyer told the prospective jurors."

"As Law360 writes, one potential male juror told the judge he thought he could be fair but only because it's a civil suit and not a criminal one: 'I believe that in a criminal trial I would feel morally-obligated to convict, however, in a civil trial I could set those views aside,' the man said, adding, 'I believe it would be to the benefit of the human race for Mr. Musk to be sent to prison.' The stakes are lower in a civil case, the man said. 'I don't believe the loss of several hundreds of millions of dollars in civil trial will be even a drop in the bucket to his wealth,' he said. 'So it doesn't really matter.' The man did not make it onto the nine-member jury."

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https://www.jalopnik.com/2106434/elon-musk-lawyer-struggles-find-acceptable-jurors/