Elon Musk has denied an allegation that he sexually confused a flight attendant in 2016, characterizing it as part of a smear campaign against him.
The divulge surfaced the earlier day (Would possibly perchance well presumably 19) in a story by Alternate Insider, which essentially essentially based its story on the memoir of a buddy of the alleged victim. In step with a declaration signed by the buddy, all the plan thru a 2016 SpaceX corporate-jet flight, Elon Musk requested the attendant to return into his cabin and provides him a full-body rub down.
“When she arrived, the attendant stumbled on that Musk ‘used to be thoroughly naked with the exception of for a sheet covering the decrease half of his body,'” Alternate Insider wrote. “Accurate thru the rub down, the declaration says, Musk ‘exposed his genitals’ and then ‘touched her and equipped to have interaction her a horse if she would “enact more,” relating to the efficiency of sex acts.'”
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In step with the Alternate Insider story, the flight attendant filed a criticism, which used to be resolved in November 2018 when SpaceX paid her a $250,000 severance kit “in change for a promise no longer to sue over the claims.”
Musk has denied the allegations in a series of tweets over the previous two days, calling them “wild accusations” which would perchance presumably presumably presumably be “fully counterfeit” and no longer easy the flight attendant’s buddy to characterize any feature of his anatomy, equivalent to scars or tattoos, “that is no longer identified by the final public.”
The SpaceX and Tesla chief also described the Alternate Insider story as a “hit portion” designed “to interfere with the Twitter acquisition” and claimed that it “used to be written forward of they even talked to me.” (Musk submitted a $44 billion announce to have interaction Twitter, which the company’s board lately current. However it is unclear at this point if the sale will if truth be told dawdle thru.)
“The assaults against me needs to be viewed thru a political lens — here’s their long-established (irascible) playbook — but nothing will deter me from combating for a correct future and your excellent to free speech,” Musk added in one more tweet on Thursday evening.
The “they” in this tweet is an obvious reference to Democrats or the left in a more commonplace sense. On Wednesday (Would possibly perchance well presumably 18), shall we announce, Musk tweeted the following: “In the previous I voted Democrat, on memoir of they had been (largely) the kindness occasion. However they hold develop into the occasion of division & abominate, so I will no longer give a enhance to them and can vote Republican. Now, peer their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold…”
Alternate Insider says that it reached out to Musk forward of publishing the story. When requested to comment on the allegation, in accordance with Alternate Insider, Musk requested more time and mentioned that there is “plenty more to this story.”
“If I had been inclined to secure in sexual harassment, here’s unlikely to be the famous time in my total 30-365 days profession that it comes to light,” Musk wrote by the expend of electronic mail, in accordance with Alternate Insider. The billionaire entrepreneur also called the story a “politically motivated hit portion.”
In step with John Cook, investigations editor at Insider, the e-newsletter reached out to Musk at around 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) on Wednesday — about three hours forward of Musk posted his “dirty tricks” tweet.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Wide Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e-book about the survey alien existence. Apply him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Apply us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.