SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been accused of sexual harassing a former flight attendant at the company.
According to a report from Insider, the attendant who worked for SpaceX’s corporate jet fleet accused Musk of exposing himself to her on a 2016 flight to London and saying he’d buy her a horse if she touched his penis. The attendant was encouraged by the company to become a licensed masseuse to perform massages during flights.
A friend of the attendant prepared a declaration to support the attendant’s claims of sexual misconduct in court. The Insider story was pulled from this declaration, as well as other documents and an interview with the unnamed friend.
“He whipped out his penis, it was erect,” the friend said. “And he started propositioning her, like he touched her thigh and told her he would buy her a horse. And he basically tried to bribe her to perform some sort of sexual favor.”
The attendant was given $250,000 in a 2018 settlement from SpaceX. Musk called the news a “politically motivated hit piece” in a response to the publication,
“If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light,” he shared in an email.
After the story was published, Musk went on a late-night Twitter posting spree denying the allegations and responding to his supporters.
The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2022
Musk recently attempted to buy the platform as part of a claimed crusade for free speech. The platform hosts a bot that tracks the travel of the billionaire’s jet, something that famously ruffled the feathers of the car company magnate.
Outside of SpaceX, Musk’s forays into other arenas have lead to notably faulty products. His tunnel-boring company has already rolled out at least one boondoggle while promising the moon to local governments. (Speaking of the moon, some of SpaceX’s cast-off junk is currently on a collision course with the face of it.) His flagship company Tesla is notable for both being the largest seller of electric vehicles in the US. Those vehicles, however, have become notable for their catastrophic failures and seeming lack of quality control.