The jury found Elon Musk did not defame Vernon Unsworth when he called him a “pedo guy”. Musk said, “My faith in humanity is restored” after he left the court. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/06/elon-musk-vernon-unsworth-trial-verdict

I guess you could say that today was a good day for billionaires that want to call non-public figures pedos, but it’s hard to know what else to say about this one.

The jury was only given a limited set of facts and I’m sure there will be a lot of second guessing on the the legal strategy of the plaintiffs. I was very confused by a lot of their decisions, and thought Wood’s summation was poorly suited to the audience.

But the bigger picture is this: Elon Musk indicated that if Vernon Unsworth didn’t sue him for defamation, it would suggest that the “pedo” smear was true. But by suing Musk, Unsworth subjected himself and his friends/family to immense scrutiny and humiliation.

His private chats with friends were pored over by lawyers and read out to the jury. His personal relationships with estranged family members were dragged into the open. Silly things like a YouTube video made by a friend were turned into evidence of greed and hubris.

Lawyers wearing fancy suits mocked a guy who earns $33k a year for signing his name with his MBE and making just $1,000 per speaking appearance. One of Musk’s lawyers sneered that a dollar goes a long way in Thailand.

Again and again Musk’s team cast rescue diver Rick Stanton as a hero and Unsworth as a game hungry hanger on, while simultaneously preventing the jury from hearing Stanton’s actual opinion of Musk and his mini-sub.

Unsworth is obviously not perfect. He came across on the stand as stubborn and recalcitrant. He obviously enjoyed thumbing his nose at Musk’s submarine in the CNN interview. But did he deserve what Musk did, knowing as we know just how much weight his words carry?

It’s been a long week locked in a small room with a lot of men (including many lawyers) and their egos.

At the end of the day my biggest takeaway on the two principle characters was this: Unsworth appears to be a man with a lot of friends. Musk is a man with a lot of employees.