SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell has said that she does not believe the sexual misconduct claims made against Elon Musk, according to CNBC.
“Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations,” Shotwell declared in an email to employees last week, according to the outlet.
Last week, Business Insider reported that a flight attendant was paid $250,000 in a severance agreement after alleging Musk had engaged in sexual misconduct — the outlet reported that the alleged episode was discussed in a declaration signed by a friend of the accuser. According to the outlet, the declaration said that during a massage, Musk “exposed” himself, “touched her and offered to buy her a horse if she would ‘do more,’ referring to the performance of sex acts.”
Musk has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct. He told Business Insider that there was “a lot more to this story.”
“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,” Musk said, according to the outlet, which reported that he described the story as a “politically motivated hit piece.”
“And, for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue,” Musk tweeted. “But I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me ‘exposed’ – describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public. She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened.”
The billionaire business tycoon is planning to purchase Twitter and transform it into a haven for free speech.
“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party,” Musk tweeted last week. “But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold …”