Update 3: Two weeks after telling BuzzFeed that he "fucking hopes" British diver Vern Unsworth would sue him over his "pedo" accusation, Elon Musk has indeed been hit with a lawsuit:

JUST IN: Elon Musk is sued by Thai-cave rescuer Vernon Unsworth in lawsuit alleging libel, assault, slander – court records pic.twitter.com/EbWSRR9Tqx — Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 17, 2018

Read more about the lawsuit.

Update 2: After rehashing his "pedo" accusation towards Vern Unsworth, a British expat living in Thailand who assisted with the cave rescue effort, last week and then getting hit with news that Unsworth appears to be proceeding with a defamation case, Elon Musk ramped up his accusations in an email to BuzzFeed News:

"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," Musk wrote in the first message. "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."

You can read the rest of Musk's emails over at BuzzFeed News.





Update: It looks like Musk may not have been correct when he tweeted on Tuesday that British diver Vern Unsworth, who assisted in the Thai cave rescue, was not pursuing legal action over Musk's "pedo" accusation. BuzzFeed News reports:

BuzzFeed News, however, confirmed that Unsworth retained legal representation and sent Musk a letter dated August 6 detailing a possible lawsuit for the "false and defamatory statements." "You published through three different tweets to your twenty-two million followers that Mr. Unsworth engages in the sexual exploitation of Thai children, and you did so at a time when he was working to save the lives of twelve Thai children," writes Unsworth's lawyer L. Lin Wood, an Atlanta-based defamation expert. "You did so without any basis. According to a subsequent Twitter post, you did so out of anger."

[BuzzFeed News]





Previously: ​It's been a wild couple of weeks for Elon Musk, following a brief flirtation with taking Tesla private, the SEC investigations that followed, and an interview with the New York Times that described the Tesla CEO as alternating "between laughter and tears." There's also been some good news for Musk, with Model 3 production finally ramping up to the necessary levels.

But for some reason Musk has decided to return to the centerpiece of his previous bad news cycle: accusing Vern Unsworth, a member of the Thai cave rescue, of being a "pedo." Musk apologized for the comments back in July:

Nonetheless, his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader. The fault is mine and mine alone. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2018

But in a tense Twitter exchange with reporters on Tuesday, he appeared to throw that all out the window. After tweeting that he didn't actually cry during the New York Times interview, Musk got into it with former TechCrunch writer Drew Olanoff and heavily implied that the "pedo" comment was accurate, as Unsworth has not yet pursued legal action against Musk:

You don't think it's strange he hasn't sued me? He was offered free legal services. And you call yourself @yoda … — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2018

Did you investigate at all? I'm guessing answer is no. Why? — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2018

Meanwhile, Musk's fans implored him to just give it up already:

@elonmusk Twitter fights with trolls slow down the mission, regardless whether or not they are wrong. — ValueAnalyst (@ValueAnalyst1) August 28, 2018

We can't afford to have you short circuiting now, Elon. — Jarrett Abello (@jarrettabello) August 28, 2018