Elon Musk’s recent deposition, made public in a transcript published by HuffPost on Monday, revealed several interesting details about the owner of X. The deposition also included several heated exchanges between Musk, his lawyer, and the plaintiff. We read the whole 108-page transcript and pulled the best moments.
This deposition is related to Musk’s tweets on the X platform, specifically pertaining to a 22-year-old Jewish man Ben Brody who is suing the billionaire. Brody alleges Musk contributed to a conspiracy theory about him. However, this public deposition explored wide-ranging topics about Musk’s life.
Brody’s attorney, Mark Bankston, peppered Musk and his longtime lawyer, Alex Spiro, with questions for nearly two hours. In the deposition, Musk confirms some of his strange alt accounts on X. Spiro specifically asked at one point to make this deposition confidential, though it clearly was made public this week.
Musk revealed in his deposition that he’s never read Walter Isaacson’s biography on him. Later on, Musk says he may have done more financial harm than good to the X platform. These quotes from Musk, who often comes up as “A” or “WITNESS” in the transcript, come alongside several heated exchanges, all occurring over Zoom.
Here are the best moments from Elon Musk’s deposition about his use of the X platform, and other parts of his life>
I’m really curious about Spiro’s assertion, “This isn’t something you’re allowed to ask by the Court …” Makes me wonder if there was a discovery order limiting the scope of the deposition or what. In discovery depositions, you can generally inquire into all manner of things, usually including the witness’s state of mind, opinions or beliefs. There is a difference between what is “discoverable” and what may ultimately prove “admissible” in court, and the ground covered by the former is substantially broader than the latter. Further, in many jurisdictions an attorney may not instruct his client to refuse to answer absent very specific circumstances. The attorney may object, and the court may later uphold the objection and strike the answer from the transcript, but usually the witness must still answer the question in case the objection is not sustained.
EDIT – saw the later portion where Musk just started talking without a question before him. While the Plaintiff’s attorney was trying to interrupt him and stop, that is a dumb move, IMHO. My personal experience was always it was best to let them talk; let them ramble. The longer they go on, the more likely they are to contradict themselves or give away more information than intended. Conversely, my advice to my own witnesses being deposed to answer the question truthfully and honestly, but answer ONLY the question being asked and then stop. If the other party’s lawyer wants to know more, they’ll ask. Don’t volunteer. So it’s kind of surprising to see this lawyer taking the opposite approach which his client.
