Elon Musk denies sexually harassing flight attendant

Billionaire Elon Musk took to Twitter late on Thursday to denounce as “completely untrue” claims in a news report that he had sexually harassed a flight attendant on a non-public jet in 2016.

Organization Insider noted before on Thursday that Musk’s SpaceX compensated US$250,000 in 2018 to settle a sexual harassment assert from an unnamed personal jet flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself to her.

The write-up quoted an nameless human being who said she was a good friend of the flight attendant. The good friend had presented a statement as aspect of the private settlement approach, according to the short article.

“I have a problem to this liar who promises their pal saw me ‘exposed’ – describe just one particular matter, everything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t identified by the community. She will not be capable to do so, since it by no means transpired,” Musk tweeted.

Reuters was not in a position to confirm the Enterprise Insider account. Musk and SpaceX did not react to Reuters requests for comment on the Company Insider story or on Musk’s tweets.

In addition to allegedly exposing himself, Musk rubbed the flight attendant’s thigh and presented to invest in her a horse if she would “do more” during an in-flight therapeutic massage, Small business Insider quoted the buddy of the flight attendant as indicating.

The flight attendant came to believe that her refusal to acknowledge Musk’s proposal had hurt her opportunities to work at SpaceX and prompted her to seek the services of a law firm in 2018, in accordance to Company Insider.

The rocket organization designed the settlement out of court and involved a nondisclosure settlement which prevented the flight attendant from talking about it, Small business Insider said. The news website did not identify the friend or the flight attendant.

Musk, who is also chief government of Tesla and is in the midst of a contentious effort to buy Twitter, stated on Wednesday that he would vote Republican rather of Democrat, predicting a “filthy tricks marketing campaign from me” would abide by.

In the Enterprise Insider posting, Musk was quoted as expressing the flight attendant’s story was a “politically determined strike piece” and that there was “a large amount more to this story.”

On Thursday evening, Musk first tweeted: “The assaults in opposition to me must be considered through a political lens – this is their common (despicable) playbook – but nothing will prevent me from battling for a superior upcoming and your ideal to cost-free speech.” In the preliminary tweet, he did not especially point out the allegations in the Business enterprise Insider article.

“And, for the document, people wild accusations are totally untrue,” Musk added in a different tweet.

He also tweeted that the report was intended to interfere with the Twitter acquisition.

Reuters could not instantly attain Enterprise Insider for comment.

Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Joey Roulette Editing by Peter Henderson
