Elon Musk defends photo with Ghislaine Maxwell, claiming he was ‘photobombed’
Billionaire Elon Musk has tried to explain away a controversial picture showing him alongside accused Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tech maverick Elon Musk has responded to online “trolling” over a photo of himself next to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s accused co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Mr Musk responded to a tweet from writer Leigh Alexander, who tweeted a photo of the pair together.
“Who’s your friend? You look like you’re having fun,” she tweeted at the Tesla co-founder, who also founded SpaceX.
Ms Alexander was among several social media users who tweeted the photo at Mr Musk. He eventually spoke in response to her.
Mr Musk said he and Maxwell just happened to be at the same party, and claimed Maxwell had “photobombed” him, reiterating a previous statement from a spokesperson.
I was at that Vanity Fair party with @TalulahRiley. Don’t know Ghislaine. Real question is why did VF invite her?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2020
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“Ghislaine simply inserted herself behind him in a photo he was posing for without his knowledge,” Mr Musk’s spokesperson told the New York Times.
In 2018, Epstein told a New York Times reporter he’d been contacted by a member of Mr Musk’s team for advice while Mr Musk was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Both Tesla and Mr Musk vehemently denied Epstein’s claim and said it was “incorrect to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything”.
Epstein and Mr Musk have also attended dinners together in the past including one in 2011, according to a report by Buzzfeed News.
Mr Musk once went to his house in Manhattan, according to Ms Riley, who also attended.
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The photo of Mr Musk and Maxwell was taken at an Oscars after-party in 2014 organised by Vanity Fair magazine.
Mr Musk attended alongside his second (and then third) wife Talulah Riley, a couple of years before the pair divorced for the second and potentially final time.
Mr Musk also denied rumours that Epstein had been given a private tour of SpaceX several years after his 2008 conviction for procuring an underage girl for prostition.
To the best our knowledge, he never toured SpaceX. Don’t know where that comes from.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2020
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Ms Riley later tweeted to say she “wanted to respond publicly with Elon Musk’s permission” given the “truly horrific nature” of the implications being drawn from the photo.
One implication she said she’d seen was that Ghislaine Maxwell had “procured” her as “some kind of child bride for Elon”, which she denied.
“I don’t know Maxwell,” she said.
“Elon and I met when I was 22 and he was on a business trip to London. It was a chance meeting engineered by no one.”
She said that, to her knowledge, she’d never met Maxwell, but conceded she might have been briefly introduced to her at some point during the 2014 party. She said it was unreasonable for everyone to remember all the people they’ve ever met, particularly with such high public profiles.
“Elon and I met thousands of people over the course of our relationship. There will be countless photos of Elon with people he doesn’t know or happened to be stood next to at a party,” Ms Riley said.
I don’t usually comment on such things, but given the truly horrific nature of what is being implied up and down my timeline today, I wanted to respond publicly with @elonmusk’s permission. However, I speak only for myself. https://t.co/WA3sqKR4tV pic.twitter.com/aK8A4HvNAH
— Talulah Riley (@TalulahRiley) July 4, 2020
She said a visit she and Mr Musk paid to Epstein’s Manhattan mansion was facilitated by a man taking them around the city and introducing them to various people, and she couldn’t remember in what year it occurred.
Ms Riley and Mr Musk met in 2008, the same year Epstein was convicted, and it’s likely the visit to the Manhattan house didn’t happen until after he’d completed his sentence.
Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail, but didn’t spend much of that sentence actually in the private wing of the Palm Beach County Sherrif’s office that served as his prison.
He was reportedly allowed tp to come and go virtually as he pleased on “work release” (unlike most sex offenders in Florida, who are housed in state prisons and not allowed work release).
He was later arrested and charged again, this time with a raft of serious sex offences, but died before trial.
His death has been ruled a suicide.
Maxwell has recently been charged with six counts related to the offending of the now deceased Epstein, including accusations she procured and groomed young women who were later assaulted by him.
Maxwell has repeatedly denied having anything to do with Epstein’s offending, but has now been accused of lying to investigators about her involvement.
There are fears that like Epstein, she may die in prison before a trial.
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