SpaceX pays $250,000 to settle sexual harassment claim against Elon Musk

Hours following a report claiming SpaceX paid a staff $250,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim against Elon Musk, the billionaire said that the attacks against him "should be viewed through a political lens".

Without directly citing the Insider report, the Tesla CEO maintained that nothing will discourage him "from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech".

"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 wrote.

As per the Insider report, SpaceX made the payment to an unidentified flight attendant in 2018 who worked as a contract staff on a SpaceX corporate flight.

The flight attendant had reportedly alleged that Elon Musk exposed himself and propositioned her in a private room on the plane during a flight.

The SpaceX CEO made an offer to purchase the flight attendant a horse in exchange for an erotic massage, the report claimed, alluding to interviews and documents that had a declaration signed by a friend of the flight attendant made in support of her allegation.

In response to a follower, Elon Musk tweeted: “For the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue.”

"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," Musk wrote on the micro-blogging platform.

The SpaceX CEO also quote-tweeted his earlier tweet from 2021 where he had suggested calling it ‘Elongate’ if there's ever a scandal about him.

“Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It's kinda perfect,” he wrote.

SpaceX founder’s recommendation to see the allegations from a “political lens” was made in an apparent reference to his changed voting inclination. Earlier, Elon Musk said that he voted for Democrats in the past but he will now vote for Republicans.

"In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican," Musk tweeted.

"Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold," said Musk, who has agreed to buy Twitter.

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