is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
Last week, the Department of Justice released a trove of documents related to its case against Jeffrey Epstein, its largest to date. Amid the millions of files were many mentions of Elon Musk. A search of Musk’s name in the department’s database results in at least 1,500 hits.
Since the release, Musk has been — what else? — posting through it, defending himself and his correspondence with Epstein on his social media platform, X. Musk said he had “very little correspondence” with Epstein and “declined repeated invitations” to go to Epstein’s island, despite emails showing he had been in touch with Epstein in 2012 and 2013, at one point asking him, “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Epstein even offered to send a helicopter to bring Musk to the island.
It’s unclear if Musk ever made it to the island, and he hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein. But the revelations certainly fly in the face of Musk’s past denials that he “REFUSED” invitations from the convicted sex offender, as does his bumbling efforts at damage control now that the truth has emerged.
The revelations certainly fly in the face of Musk’s past denials that he “REFUSED” invitations from the convicted sex offender.
To be sure, Musk is that rare executive who seems financially immune from his many controversies. He has endured defamation lawsuits, wrongful death lawsuits, sexual misconduct allegations, rumors of drug use, and more — and all the while his net worth continues to go up.
But there’s no arguing that the news of the Epstein emails comes at a very inconvenient time for Musk, who is currently in the middle of several highly sensitive, high-stakes business moves, including a possible IPO and the attempted merger of at least two of his companies. SpaceX is lining up for a possible record public offering later this year. And last week, Reuters reported that Musk was interested in merging his rocket and telecommunications company with xAI. (As this story published, the merger was officially announced.)
The news that Musk sought an invite to Epstein’s island could “dent his image” with investors, said Ann Lipton, a professor of corporate governance at the University of Colorado Law School. And since much of Musk’s success depends on the optimism he generates among investors, a “dent” in that optimism could hurt his efforts to secure a historic IPO for SpaceX.
“But I think the bigger risk to his companies is what we’d call ‘distraction costs’ — he seems to be spending a lot of time trying to refute allegations that he was involved with Epstein, and that itself might be something investors become concerned about,” Lipton said in an email.
Musk has faced criticisms about how he chooses to spend his time before. In 2022, hundreds of SpaceX employees signed a letter asserting that Musk’s behavior had become a source of embarrassment and a distraction for the company. (At the time, the billionaire was in the middle of his doomed effort to weasel out of his offer to buy Twitter.) Last year, Tesla’s shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package for Musk that was engineered to lure him away from DOGE and his work for the Trump administration, and back to the EV company.
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