Elon Musk and his team of lawyers are fighting to have a lawsuit dropped that came forward by British diver Vernon Unsworth who helped to rescue a boys soccer team that was trapped in a Thailand cave. Vernon criticized Elon and his SpaceX engineers after they built a small submarine and sent it to Thailand to help with the trapped kids.
Vernon called it a PR stunt, which led Elon to go on Twitter and call him a "pedo guy" to his 23 million plus followers. Vernon sued for defamation and $75,000. The Guardian reports that Elon's team is claiming that his words were amid a “schoolyard spat on social media” and users “expect to read opinions, not facts." His team even calls on the free speech act, protected by the US constitution’s first amendment.
Elon did later apologize for the tweet, but Vernon's team doesn't think that's enough. “Mr Musk does not let the facts or well-established law get in the way of his novel but inaccurate contentions in his motion to dismiss,” L Lin WoodWood, a lawyer for Vernon said. “I am confident the trial court will likewise reject this fanciful position.“
The hearing is set for April 1st, 2019.