“A far-left actress with a major political ax to grind” is how Elon Musk described the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. He challenged her to prove her claims by describing an area of his anatomy “not known to the public.”
Late Thursday night, Musk took to Twitter to deny the “wild accusations” that had been made against him. For the first time, the allegations were made public by the website Insider.
SpaceX paid a $250,000 settlement to a flight attendant who made Elon Musk sexual harassment accusation of exposing himself to her on one of his private planes in 2016 — according to the bombshell report. On Thursday, Insider reported that Musk had also been accused of rubbing a flight attendant’s leg without permission and making an offer to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage on the plane.
Insider published an article about Musk challenging the friend of the accuser who was allegedly informed of the incident shortly after it occurred.
Musk tweeted: “But I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me ‘exposed’ — describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public.”
“She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened.”
Musk was responding on Twitter to a commenter who wondered: “Where were these wild accusations against @elonmusk before he took a stand against the establishment?”
Musk, who recently announced his intention to buy Twitter for $44 billion and take it private, responded with the tweet, “Exactly.”
Musk went on to call the woman a “far-left activist/actress in LA with a major political ax to grind,” referring to her time as a SpaceX flight attendant on his private jet.
Elon Musk was asked by another Twitter user whether he had responded to Insider’s request for comment; the world’s richest person replied: “No, it was clear that their only goal was a hit price [sic] to interfere with the Twitter acquisition. Before they even spoke to me, the story had already been written.”
Elon Musk was quoted as saying that there was “a lot more to this story” in the original Insider article. “This is unlikely to be the first time in my 30-year career that it comes to light if I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment,” he wrote to Insider. A “politically-motivated hit piece” published by the news site was also slammed by Musk.
The alleged incident occurred on a flight to London aboard one of Musk’s planes. It was revealed by Insider that an airline attendant told a friend that Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked her to come into his room for a massage while on a flight.
Musk “exposed his genitals” and “touched her leg and offered to buy her a horse if she would ‘do more,'” according to the declaration, as reported by Insider during the massage, according to the report. The declaration obtained by Insider states that the flight attendant, who rides horses, declined and finished the massage without engaging in any sexual activity.
At least three times on Thursday night, Elon Musk took to Twitter to deny or explain the allegations, claiming that they were politically motivated.
One of his first tweets stated that the attacks on him should be seen through a political lens, but “nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech,” he wrote.
The “wild accusations are utterly untrue,” he added in a subsequent tweet. There was no comment from SpaceX in response to the Insider story.