Published , by Asif Khan
Published , by Asif Khan
Elon Musk has been dominating the headlines lately with stories fabricated from his own stream of tweets, but news broke today that Tesla's CEO has been silent about. A female SpaceX employee was paid $250,000 to remain silent about an incident with the company's billionaire founder. The report alleges that Elon Musk exposed his penis to a SpaceX flight attendant and asked her to "do more" during an in-flight massage. He even offered to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage, according to the report. This misconduct claim was settled in 2018, and apparently took place in 2016, which makes today a pretty strange day for this to leak out.
In a report filed by Insider, the publication breaks down some very disturbing details of the alleged encounter. Much of this information was obtained from a friend of the victim who was made aware of the situation before the 2018 severance agreement was reached. The employee was encouraged to get licensed as a massage therapist shortly after being hired so she would be able to give Musk mid-flight massages. It was during one such massage in 2016 that Musk allegedly took things way too far. Musk was accused of exposing his erect penis to the flight attendant, rubbing her leg without consent, and even offering to buy her a horse in exchange for a more erotic massage.
Insider reached out to Musk for comment, and he replied saying "If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light." Musk also added that he believes this story is a "politically motivated hit piece."
The flight attendant's friend who spoke with Insider about the terrible allegations went into further detail describing the aftermath. The SpaceX attendant saw her shifts decrease in frequency over time and described the situation as if "she was being pushed out and punished for refusing to prostitute herself."
This is not the only instance of sexual harassment being reported at Musk's companies. At least six women have sued Tesla alleging sexual harassment at the company. Four other female SpaceX employees have also come forward, but three of them are under NDAs. For a "free speech" proponent, Elon Musk sure does seem to like keeping his employees quiet. While the other instances of harassment may not involve Musk directly, they speak to a corporate culture at two companies where he is the iconic leader that so many people look up to.
Musk has been tweeting up a storm leading up to the release of this terrible news, but has been very silent. Surely, he will have something to say once his Ambien kicks in and he can fire off some more tweets late at night.
Update May 19, 2022 at 10:49 p.m. PT: He did indeed have something to say once his Ambien kicked in and he fired off some more tweets late at night.
Twitter user with #NFTs in her bio, Tara Bull, has come to the defense of billionaire Elon Musk, tweeting, “Where were these wild accusations against @elonmusk before he took a stand against the establishment?” The tweet caught Musk’s attention, which he responded with the following across multiple replies:
Exactly. And, for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue. 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 goes on to reply to user JohnnaCrider1:
Exactly. Moreover, the “friend” in question who gave the interview to BI, is a far left activist/actress in LA with a major political axe to grind.
When asked by TeslaownersSV whether he actually responded to the reportor from BI, Musk responded with:
No, it was clear that their only goal was a hit price to interfere with the Twitter acquisition. The story was written before they even talked to me.
I suppose we better start referring to this as Elongate. Musk has also affirmed his position on free speech.
We'll be sure to keep you up to date on Elongate should anything else crop up.