SpaceX’s female president defends Elon Musk over sex misconduct claims
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell defended Elon Musk against a sexual misconduct allegation that he has denied, CNBC reported on Monday.
Business Insider last week reported that Musk’s private rocket company SpaceX paid $250,000 in 2018 to settle a sexual harassment claim from an unnamed private jet flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself to her.
“Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations,” Shotwell wrote in an email to employees last week, according to the CNBC report.
Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has denied the report of harassment, calling the person who made the claim a liar.
The Business Insider article quoted an anonymous person who said she was a friend of the flight attendant. The friend had provided a statement as part of the private settlement process, according to the article.
SpaceX and Shotwell could not immediately be reached for comment.
Musk called the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct a “far-left actress” who has “a major political axe to grind” — and challenged her to verify her claims by describing a part of his anatomy “not known by the public.”
Musk took to Twitter last week to defend himself, saying that the “wild accusations are utterly untrue.”
The tech mogul was accused of exposing himself to a flight attendant aboard one of his private planes in 2016 — and SpaceX later paid the woman $250,000 to settle her sexual misconduct claim, according to the bombshell report.
Musk was also accused of rubbing the flight attendant’s leg without permission and offering to buy her a horse if she gave him an erotic massage onboard the plane, Insider reported on Thursday, citing documents and interviews.
Hours after Insider published the story, Musk challenged the friend of the accuser who is reported to have been told about the alleged incident soon after it happened.
Musk tweeted: “But 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.”
He has also stated his intention to vote for Republican candidates in the election this fall as well as in 2024.
With Post wires