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Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)
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.
To start off, Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro wouldn’t even let the plaintiff get the first question off. Spiro threatened to end the deposition before it started.
Here we see Elon admit to using an alt as a “test account.” HuffPost revealed this account to be @ermnmusk. Musk references “baby smoke 9,000" as well, which appears to be a typo for @babysmurf9000. Those two appear to be Elon’s alternate X accounts.
Elon Musk appeared to be confused about who Mr. Brody, the man suing him, actually is. Bankston asked Musk if he understood that he was a lawyer.
Bankston kept reading a rule about what types of objections a defending lawyer can make. Spiro didn’t care and continued to interrupt the whole time.
Musk says he “may have done more to financially impair the company than to help it” at one point in the deposition. He’s defending that he doesn’t start controversy to boost engagement.
Things got heated pretty early on. Bankston yelled at Musk (the witness) and Spiro to follow his rules. The defense had to remind Bankston to stay calm.
Elon describes a meme that’s just a kitten with a tin foil hat.
Elon makes a good point. Even if something looks like a donut, it could be a bagel.
Elon abruptly left the Zoom at one point.
Musk reveals that, based on the advice from Walter Isaacson, never read his own biography.
Musk just started talking at one point, when no question was asked of him. The plaintiff asked Musk to wait for a question, and Spiro asked that Musk just be allowed to speak.
At the end of this interview, Alex Spiro asked for this deposition to be confidential. However, the plaintiff argued that there had been no grounds for that. Then Spiro hopped off the Zoom call before any discussion could happen.
