Elon Musk has tapped Robert Kraft’s lawyer Alex Spiro to defend him in his defamation case against a British diver who he labeled a pedophile on Twitter, DailyMail.com has learned.
The billionaire filed an application for the non-resident attorney to appear in his California-based case against Vernon Unsworth, according to court papers filed to the Southern District of New York on Wednesday.
Unsworth, 63, is suing Musk, 47, after the SpaceX CEO called him a ‘pedo guy’ and ‘child rapist’ on Twitter and in emails after Unsworth helped rescue 12 boys and their coach stuck in a Thai cave last July.
Spiro, 36, is a high profile attorney and is currently representing Patriots owner Robert Kraft in a separate case after the 77-year-old was charged with solicitation after he allegedly payed for sex acts at a Florida massage parlor earlier this year.
Elon Musk has tapped Robert Kraft’s lawyer Alex Spiro to defend him in his defamation case against a British diver who he labeled a pedophile on Twitter, DailyMail.com has learned
Spiro, 36, (right) is a high profile attorney and is currently representing Patriots owner Robert Kraft (left) in a separate case after the 77-year-old was charged with solicitation after he allegedly payed for sex acts at a Florida massage parlor earlier this year
In April, Musk lost a motion to have the defamation case thrown out.
He had claimed his tweets were protected by the First Amendment and shouldn’t have been taken seriously.
In Unsworth’s lawsuit, filed last September, the Brit demanded at least $75,000 in compensatory damages plus unspecified punitive damages from Musk.
The British financial broker, who is from outside of London, is an experienced diver and was part of a team who successfully rescued a soccer team of 12 boys and their coach who got trapped for 18 days in a Thai cave last July.
In an effort to get involved with the rescue mission, Musk and his SpaceX engineers built a small submarine and shipped it to Thailand to help.
The device wasn’t used and Unsworth called it a ‘PR stunt’ during a television interview.
In response, Musk labelled Unsworth a ‘pedo guy’ in a tweet to his 22 million Twitter followers.
Although later apologizing, Musk doubled-down on his comments in an email to a Buzzfeed journalist, telling the reporter to investigate Unsworth and ‘stop defending child rapists’.
Unsworth, 63, (pictured) is suing Musk, 47, after the SpaceX CEO called him a ‘pedo guy’ and ‘child rapist’ on Twitter and in emails after Unsworth helped rescue boys stuck in a Thai cave last year
In an effort to get involved with the rescue mission, Musk and his SpaceX engineers built a small submarine and shipped it to Thailand to help. The device wasn’t used and Unsworth called it a ‘PR stunt’ during a television interview. In response, Musk labelled Unsworth a ‘pedo guy’ in a tweet to his 22 million Twitter followers (pictured)
Musk later apologized on Twitter, claiming his words were ‘spoken in anger.’ The tech boss had his motion to have the lawsuit dismissed denied in April
Musk seems to think hiring Spiro as his lawyer will help him win the case.
Spiro currently represents Robert Kraft who is one of 25 men charged with paying for sex at Florida spa Orchids of Asia.
The billionaire has pleaded not guilty but issued a public apology for his actions.
This week, Spiro was accused by Florida prosecutors of lying during Kraft’s case and falsely alleging that a police officer confessed to fabricating a traffic violation to stop another massage parlor customer.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed a motion asking Judge Leonard Hanser to hold Spiro and Kraft’s other lawyer William Burck in contempt and throw out their questioning of Jupiter police officer Scott Kimbark.
Spiro alleged in court that Kimbark said just before he pulled over a customer leaving the Orchids of Asia Day Spa just before Kraft that he did not need to witness a traffic infraction but would instead ‘make some s**t up’.
Prosecutors said that this was said to another officer at another time and in a completely different context, and claim that have the footage to back up their claim.
Spiro is also accused of telling Officer Kimbark during a recess in the trial: ‘I have a video of you saying stupid s**t.’
He then allegedly told Kimbark that if a fellow officer did not testify he would not use the tape.
‘It is abundantly clear that this ‘video’ was a reference to the imaginary clip of the officer talking about ‘making up shit’ – a video clip that does not exist,’ the motion states.