Musk says Delaware judge showed bias by backing his adversaries on LinkedIn

By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has asked a Delaware judge to step aside from a pair of shareholder lawsuits against him and his company Tesla TSLA.O, saying she showed bias by amplifying a LinkedIn post mocking him and his lawyers after a separate jury verdict went against him in California.

In a court filing on Tuesday, Musk’s lawyers at Quinn Emanuel said Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick had clicked to “support” a LinkedIn post that had criticized Musk and the law firm after a verdict in a shareholder lawsuit last week in federal court in California.

The jury in that case found Musk liable for trying to drive down the stock price of the social media platform Twitter so he could renegotiate or back out of a $44 billion takeover in 2022. Musk has denied any wrongdoing.

“Delaware courts have built a careful reputation for integrity and impartial justice,” Musk’s lawyers wrote in their filing, which asked McCormick to recuse herself from overseeing two shareholder cases pending in her court.

McCormick in a court filing on Tuesday said she either never clicked the “support” button on the LinkedIn post or did so by accident, and that she had reported suspicious activity to LinkedIn.

A court spokesperson said the court would not comment on Musk's request. Lawyers for the shareholder plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Quinn Emanuel, which has represented Musk for years in high-stakes court fights, declined to comment.

McCormick’s filing said she will take Musk’s request for recusal under advisement. She placed the two shareholder cases on pause, including a dispute over how much in legal fees the lawyers who brought those cases should be paid.

McCormick has presided over several high-profile cases involving Musk. She previously struck down his $56 billion Tesla pay package, though Delaware's Supreme Court in December reversed that decision.

During the trial in San Francisco, Musk testified he decided not to terminate his purchase of Twitter because he believed McCormick – who was then overseeing litigation about the purchase – was biased against him and would order him to close the deal.

The cases are In re Tesla Inc Derivative Litigation, Delaware Chancery Court, No. 2024-0631-KSJM, and The Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit v. Musk et al, same court, No. 2020-0477-KSJM.

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