At SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk has “unrestricted” use of his email accounts for personal stuff, and “no one” at Tesla can get ahold of his emails without his express consent except “to the extent legally necessary.” At SpaceX, absolutely nobody can access Musk’s emails without his permission. This is not true for other employees at SpaceX and Tesla, where company policies make it clear the rank and file have no expectation of privacy. It’s good to be Technoking, I guess.
This came up because Twitter, which is suing Musk for abandoning his joke takeover bid for the company, has been trying to compel Musk to hand over his emails. But Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the judge overseeing the case, ruled that because of Musk’s special privileges, his emails will remain private. They’re covered by attorney-client privilege, she says.
She writes:
A cynic might doubt that Musk-specific policies exist at SpaceX and Tesla. Defendants’ factual arguments to that effect rely solely on the affidavits of Musk, who has a lot at stake in this litigation, and three of his direct reports, and none of the affidavits are supported by any corporate records reflecting Musk-specific rules. Still, to this jurist, the evidence rings true.
Yeah, it rings true to this cynic, too. Musk has long been clear that he’s a special boy who doesn’t have to follow the rules. In this case, that could mean he’s leaning on three direct reports to lie — but it also suggests they don’t have to lie, mostly because lol, obviously, the rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to him? Remember when he smoked weed on The Joe Rogan Experience, and then we found out a Tesla employee was fired for… smoking weed?
Author: Elizabeth Lopatto.
Source: Theverge
