Reuters / Mike Blake
Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged a federal judge Monday to throw out a contempt order against him, saying the Securities & Exchange Commission’s legal action is, in effect, an “unconstitutional power grab” against him. In a court filing from his attorney, Musk argues the SEC’s legal action against him “smacks of retaliation and censorship” that he believes is in response to him saying last year that he didn’t “respect” the SEC. The SEC accuses Musk of breaking a deal to seek pre-approval from it for any potentially market-moving tweets. The deal was struck in September after Musk was accused of lying to investors when he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. However, on Feb. 19, Musk tweeted that the company would make about 500,000 cars this year. He says he “used his discretion” to determine that the first Feb. 19 tweet did not require pre-approval from the SEC, saying: “This was a celebratory string of tweets, expressing excitement about Tesla’s success since 2011 and pride for what Tesla anticipated achieving in 2019.”
