On Monday, Elon Musk posted a photo of himself with Google cofounder Sergey Brin in order to discredit claims from the Wall Street Journal alleging that he had an affair with Brin’s wife.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk “engaged in a brief affair last fall with the wife of Sergey Brin” in early December 2021 at the Art Basel event in Miami. They alleged that it prompted Brin “to file for divorce earlier this year … ending the tech billionaires’ long friendship, according to people familiar with the matter.”
In response to the claims, Musk tweeted a photo of himself and Brin that he claimed was taken on Sunday afternoon, adding the comment, “______, ______ your [pants] are on [fire]”.
“A picture is worth 1000 tweets,” Musk said later
The photo was reportedly taken at a party on Sunday, as he told the New York Post that he had taken it “only two hours ago” in an article published on Sunday and said in a response to a tweet on Monday, “Yeah, that was Sergey and me yesterday afternoon!”
“Nicole and Sergey’s divorce has absolutely nothing to do with me,” Musk wrote in an email to the Post.
“I am sure both Nicole and Sergey would confirm that. I spoke with both Sergey and Nicole about this and they say the story isn’t coming from them, so [it] must be a case of broken telephone, two or three layers removed,” he said.
Musk also came after Michael Siconolfi, Wall Street Journal Investigations Editor, saying, “The real problem here is that @michaelsiconolf has zero journalistic integrity.”
“The character assassination attacks have reached a new level this year, but the articles are all nothing-burgers,” he said. “I work crazy hours, so there just isn’t much time for shenanigans. None of the key people involved in these alleged wrongdoings were even interviewed!”
“WSJ has run so many bs hit pieces on me and Tesla I’ve lost count! It’s embarrassing for them, frankly,” Musk said in yet another tweet. “They once wrote an article saying FBI was about to arrest me, so I called FBI to ask what’s up and they said WSJ article was total bs. Just more shortseller fud.”
The Wall Street Journal has yet to respond to claims of journalistic dishonesty, and Brin has yet to comment on the situation.
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