Elon Emails

'Stop defending child rapists' email to BuzzFeed's Ryan Mac

From:
Elon Musk
Date:
August 30, 2018
To:
Ryan Mac (BuzzFeed News)
Subject:
RE: BuzzFeed News: Unsworth legal letter
Off the record I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what's actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you fucking asshole. He's an old, single white guy from England who's been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time. There's only one reason people go to Pattaya Beach. It isn't where you'd go for caves, but it is where you'd go for something else. Chiang Rai is renowned for child sex-trafficking. He may claim to know how to cave dive, but he wasn't on the cave dive rescue team and most of the actual dive team refused to hang out with him. I wonder why ... As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I fucking hope he sues me.

About this email

Prefacing the email 'Off the record' (a condition BuzzFeed had not agreed to), Musk tells reporter Ryan Mac to stop 'defending child rapists', makes unsupported accusations about British caver Vernon Unsworth, and says he hopes Unsworth sues.

Notes

Sent Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 6:43 PM. Published by BuzzFeed News on Sept 4, 2018 and later central to Unsworth v. Musk (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-08048), where it was a trial exhibit; Musk testified he believed the email was off the record. The accusations in the email were unsubstantiated; Unsworth denied them. The court exhibit (Musk Decl. Ex. L) shows the email also contained a Google search link for 'chiang rai child trafficking' between the second and third paragraphs, which BuzzFeed's published version omits.

Where it came from

Published by recipient; attribution confirmed.

Personal, press & journalists. Tags: unsworth-case, thai-cave-rescue, defamation, buzzfeed, pedo-guy