Liam Denning, Columnist

Elon Musk Has His Day in Court

That his surprise visit to a Manhattan courtroom ended up going relatively OK shouldn’t obscure what an unnecessary distraction he’s created.

April 4, 2019 at 10:32 PM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

He showed.
Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

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The man showed. Shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday, when attorneys were scheduled to begin oral arguments in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, Elon Musk walked in and took a seat. It came as a surprise. His presence wasn’t required. He didn’t speak, nor was he asked to, during roughly two hours of his lawyers facing off against those representing the Securities and Exchange Commission, which wanted Judge Alison Nathan to find him in contempt.

Did Musk come all that way because he was worried? I overheard one prominent short-seller of Tesla Inc. sitting in the gallery whisper to someone else, “It shows how scared he is.” More like, it was just the smart thing to do; best to be on hand and show respect in case the proceeding didn’t go his way.