‘Hatred’ of Elon Musk Makes Jury Selection a Nightmare in San Francisco Courtroom

When an attorney has to declare about his client that “so many people” in the jury pool “hate him so much,” you know voir dire isn’t going well. That’s exactly what happened this week in a San Francisco federal courtroom, where picking nine impartial jurors to hear a securities fraud case against billionaire Elon Musk turned into a five-hour marathon of bias and contempt.Federal Judge Charles R. Breyer was forced to dismiss more than 40 prospective jurors — nearly half the 93-person pool — after they admitted they simply couldn’t set aside their strong negative feelings about the billionaire tech CEO, Bloomberg Law reported.The civil trial centers on allegations that Mr. Musk violated federal securities laws during his controversial 2022 acquisition of Twitter, now known as X. Investors claim the billionaire deliberately manipulated the company’s stock price through months of public indecision and misleading statements before ultimately completing the $44 billion purchase in October 2022.Judge Breyer, a Clinton appointee and younger brother of a former Supreme Court justice, Stephen Breyer, acknowledged the unusual challenge from the outset. He told attorneys that Mr. Musk had achieved a level of fame comparable to “the President of the United States,” noting that even if they were to “search the entire country,” finding someone without an opinion about him would be nearly impossible.“As a public figure he will excite strong views, and for him in particular, people have strong views,” the judge said. “The question is — and courts are very clear about this — whether they can set them aside.”Judge Breyer began by asking prospective jurors who felt they couldn’t be impartial to raise their hands. About three dozen did so immediately and were dismissed on the spot.But pre-selection questionnaires revealed that the depth of anti-Musk sentiment extended well beyond those initial dismissals. According to Bloomberg Law, prospective jurors expressed complaints about Mr. Musk, his companies, and his political activities — particularly his involvement with President Trump’s administration and his controversial role in the short-lived Department of Government Efficiency.The most extreme example came from a prospective juror who told the court, “In a criminal trial, I would feel morally obligated to convict; however, in a civil trial, I could set those views aside.” The potential juror added, “I believe it would be to the benefit of the human race forMr. Musk to be sent to prison.”That juror was promptly dismissed, as was a woman who declared Mr. Musk has “no moral compass” and “used his wealth to buy votes.” Another prospective juror who said he disagreed with the “existence of billionaires” was also eliminated, according to Bloomberg Law.Stephen Broome, one of Mr. Musk’s lawyers, expressed frustration over the number of biased jurors making it through initial screening, including one who had written that he hates Mr. Musk.“I fear that what’s happening here is we have so many people in the venire who hate him so much that we’ve become desensitized to how improper it would be to have somebody like this on the panel,” Mr. Broome told the court.He argued that if any other defendant were on trial and a prospective juror wrote “I hate” him in a questionnaire, “there would be no question” that person would be dismissed.The case will be heard by the nine jurors who ultimately made it through the gauntlet of selection. Expected to last approximately three weeks, the trial is scheduled to begin on March 2.

‘Hatred’ of Elon Musk Makes Jury Selection a Nightmare in San Francisco Courtroom

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