Elon Musk’s Subpoena in Epstein-JPMorgan Lawsuit to Tesla Could Be Filed, Judge Rules

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the US Virgin Islands can file a subpoena for Elon Musk with electric car maker Tesla, as part of the government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s ties to dead sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The ruling came days after attorneys for the USVI government told Judge Jed Rakoff that they could not personally serve the Tesla CEO with a subpoena demanding documents related to Epstein and JPMorgan.

The Virgin Islands is suing JP Morgan in US District Court in Manhattan for allegedly enabling and financially benefiting from the sex trafficking of young women by Epstein. The late financier and sex offender was a client of the bank from 1998 until 2013. JPMorgan denies any wrongdoing.

On April 28, the USVI issued a subpoena to Musk over suspicions that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer” Musk as a client to JPMorgan, according to a court filing Monday.

The subpoena required Musk to turn over any documents showing contact with him, JPMorgan, and Epstein, as well as “all documents reflecting or relating to Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and/or his purchase of girls or women for consensual sex.”

The USVI said in a lawsuit Monday that an investigative firm it retained was unable to locate Musk to serve him personally with the subpoena, as is customary.

The lawsuit also stated that Musk’s attorney did not respond to a request that the attorney accept his client’s subpoena.

Rakoff, in his order on Wednesday, authorized USVI to “arrange alternative service for its subpoena for document production through Elon Musk’s over-the-counter service at Tesla Inc.’s registered agent.”

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The USVI also issued similar subpoenas for documents related to Epstein and JPMorgan to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, former Disney CEO Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotel Group CEO Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, a billionaire real estate investor.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is slated to be impeached on May 26 over the lawsuit and a related case against the bank by a woman who says Epstein sexually assaulted her.

In a tweet Monday night, Muks blasted the idea that he would be served a subpoena in the case.

“This is stupid on so many levels,” Musk wrote on Twitter, which he bought and gained privacy last year.

“Those cretins never advised me of anything at all,” he wrote, referring to Epstein.

“The idea that I would ever need or listen to financial advice from some idiot fraudster is absurd,” Musk added. “JPM dumped Tesla ten years ago, despite having Tesla’s global commercial banking business, which we then pulled out of. I never forgave them.”

In 2018, Epstein told the New York Times that he was advising Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Musk’s comments about taking Tesla private. A Tesla spokesperson told The Times, “It would be wrong to say that Epstein advised Elon on anything.”

Epstein himself committed suicide in August 2019, a month after federal authorities arrested him under an indictment accusing him of child sex trafficking. He had previously pleaded guilty in 2008 to the charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl in Florida.

Before his fall from grace, Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell connected with many of the rich and powerful, among them former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, as well as British Prince Andrew, brother of King Charles III.

Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in late 2021 in federal court in Manhattan of soliciting underage girls to sexual abuse by Epstein. Maxwell was sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years in prison.

Musk responded in July 2020 to a Twitter post that showed him taking a photo next to a smiling Maxwell.

“I don’t know Ghislaine at all,” Musk wrote. “She bumped into me once at a Vanity Fair party several years ago. The real question is why VF invited her in the first place.”

The New York Times, detailing that photo in a 2022 article, reported that a Vanity Fair staffer who stood next to both Maxwell and Musk at the party said that “the duo chatted.”

“Ms. Maxwell asked Mr. Musk if there was a way to remove himself from the Internet and encouraged Mr. Musk to destroy the Internet; Mr. Musk demurred,” The Times reported, quoting the employee who shared contemporary notes of the encounter.

Mrs. Maxwell then asks Mr. Musk why aliens have not yet contacted humanity, and Mr. Musk replies that all civilizations eventually end—including Maxwell’s hypothetical alien civilization—and raises the possibility that humans may live in a simulation. “