It states right in the article he was in contact with them, so he knew the piece was coming out before he made those claims.

- "For those interested, we reached out to the principals for comment regarding this story at ~9 a.m. eastern yesterday (Wednesday May 18)."

https://twitter.com/johnjcook/status/1527421611070177307

I'm not implying they aren't true. Just pointing out Musk laying the groundwork to try and discredit whatever was coming.

I deeply respect the achievements he's made but have lost any for him as a person.

Maybe you can find more respect for the contributions of his workers to those achievements, than he has as an anti-labor union buster employing illegal tactics

That's not a problem. Obviously the success is only possible with the workers who actually make stuff happen.

I'm not a Musk fanboy but I recognize the power of someone with great intelligence and vision and is willing to bully to make it happen.

Case in point: there's 3 space companies run by billionaires, but only one of them is successful. I think it's his driving force that makes the difference.

It doesn't make him a good person, but it's evident that it is effective. As with Jobs, I can respect his achievements and not respect him.

Bill Gates was also pretty unruly, especially the 90's towards the early corporate era of Microsoft.

If allegations on Elon are true, it is unfortunate to have this stain on his rather remarkable vision for the future. We need more visionaries like Elon.

"Reports of Bill Gates' alleged inappropriate relationships and sexual advances towards Microsoft employees…"

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/tech/microsoft-bill-gates-sex...

"Melinda French Gates voiced concerns about her husband’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and a harassment claim against his money manager. He also had an affair with an employee."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/business/bill-melinda-gat...

I was not a fan of Gates when MS was the 800 pound gorilla in tech. Embrace, extend, extinguish was deplorable.

When he started on the Gates Foundation and became a philanthropist it helped reform him in my eyes. But the latest revelations have undone much of that.

I'm with you. Bill went from uncool to cool, back to uncool now.

He's been "laying the ground work" long before this happened, not at all the first time he's taken shots at "leftists."

Insider says they contacted him 9am yesterday.

Legally no (in general, if there was a settlement paid then presumably it's done already), practically probably yes - he's rich.