Alex Spiro, Elon Musk's attorney, provided the following statement: "This case is nothing but a money-grab in which Unsworth has hired an agent and pursued profit, publicity and self-promotion at every turn. The truth of his motivations and actions will come out soon enough."

Unsworth, who helped rescue a boys' soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand in June 2018, went on to call Musk "a thin-skinned billionaire" with "a history of vindictively and intentionally ignoring the truth." Furthermore, Unsworth's recent filing reveals a raft of revelations that could impact Musk's defense. Unsworth's legal team has obtained an email sent by Musk to an external PR agency, for example, in which he calls himself a "fucking idiot" for providing unverified information to a BuzzFeed news reporter -- in this instance, for claiming Unsworth was a "child rapist" who took a "child bride." Unsworth in fact met his partner -- to whom he is not married -- in 2011 when she was 32.

Many of Musk's accusations against Unsworth -- beyond the original "pedo guy" comment which his lawyers maintain wasn't intended as a serious claim -- came as a result of information provided to him by "private investigator" James Howard-Higgins, later revealed to be a convicted fraudster. In his deposition, Musk said that "in retrospect" he was "just taking us for a ride." Howard-Higgins is now back in jail for violating the terms of his parole.

Update, 10/8/19, 1:30PM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Elon Musk's attorney