Elon Musk Has New Defense in 'Pedo Guy' Lawsuit

Elon Musk branded a British cave rescuer "pedo guy," and now he's employing a new defense to get the resulting lawsuit dismissed. Musk says he didn't mean the slam against Vernon Unsworth literally. "I did not intend to convey any facts or imply that Mr. Unsworth had engaged in acts of pedophilia," says Musk in the court filing, per BuzzFeed. "'Pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up. It is synonymous with 'creepy old man' and is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanor, not accuse a person of pedophilia." Still, other court documents show that Musk entertained the possibility that Unsworth was, in fact, a pedophile.

"What if we have another Jeffrey Epstein on our hands?" Musk says he wondered after paying an investigator $50,000 to look into Unsworth. Musk apparently felt this way because the investigation revealed that Unsworth once lived in Thailand and had a much younger wife. "The motion filed by Elon Musk today is a disgusting and transparent effort to continue falsely smearing Vernon Unsworth without any credible or verified supporting evidence," says Unsworth's attorney. As the Washington Post explains, this feud started when Unsworth helped in the famous Thai cave rescue and later belittled Musk's offer of help. (More Elon Musk stories.)