SpaceX CEO Elon Musk through the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2026.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Elon Musk’s authorized group is demanding {that a} decide within the Delaware Court docket of Chancery, Kathaleen McCormick, recuse herself from two Tesla lawsuits, alleging she confirmed bias in supporting a LinkedIn publish that was important of Musk.
“In gentle of the Court docket’s current public assist of LinkedIn posts that create a notion of bias towards Mr. Musk in these instances, recusal is important and warranted,” Musk’s legal professional’s wrote of their movement for recusal on Wednesday. “These instances must be re-assigned to a different random-drawn judicial officer of this Court docket.”
The publish that McCormick allegedly responded to with an emoji had touted a verdict from a San Francisco federal courtroom that might price Musk upwards of $2 billion. In that case, a jury discovered Musk had defrauded Twitter traders within the lead as much as his buyout of the social community.
McCormick despatched a letter to Musk’s attorneys saying she didn’t learn the complete textual content of the LinkedIn publish referenced, didn’t assist it, or intend to click on any emoji expressing assist of the publish, and would have solely unintentionally clicked that indicator. She additionally stated within the letter that she had reported “suspicious exercise” on her account to LinkedIn.
Quinn Emanuel companion Alex Spiro, an legal professional for Musk, advised CNBC in an e mail that he is inquired with LinkedIn on the matter, and stated “I do not consider there’s any foundation for the declare it was a ‘glitch.'”
LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
McCormick turned the goal of Musk’s ire after she ordered Tesla to rescind his 2018 CEO pay bundle, value about $56 billion in choices, when she presided over the shareholder swimsuit Tornetta v. Musk.
Musk moved his companies, together with Tesla, out of Delaware, incorporating them in Texas and Nevada and inspiring others to do the identical.
In 2025, Delaware’s Supreme Court docket stated Musk’s 2018 pay bundle should be restored, deciding that the decrease courtroom’s choice by McCormick was too excessive a treatment and didn’t give Tesla an opportunity to say what a good compensation for Musk should be.
Tesla and Musk nonetheless have two instances continuing via Delaware courts earlier than McCormick. One considerations Tesla administrators’ compensation, and the opposite is a consolidated shareholder swimsuit filed by traders alleging that Musk breached his fiduciary duties to Tesla when he began a possible competitor in synthetic intelligence, xAI,
Earlier this 12 months, Tesla invested $2 billion into xAI. Musk’s aerospace and protection firm, SpaceX, then acquired xAI, changing Tesla’s inventory into SpaceX holdings.
