Watching Elon Musk Testify Made Me Feel Bad for Sam Altman

About five hours into Elon Musk’s testimony, I typed the following sentence into my notes: “I have never been more sympathetic to Sam Altman in my life.”

That’s not something I ever expected to write. But watching Musk on the stand was genuinely painful — and not in the way you’d think.

His direct testimony was actually an improvement over the previous day. Sure, his lawyer kept asking leading questions, basically handing him the answers on a silver platter. But at least he was coherent.

Then came cross-examination. And it was a train wreck.

For hours, Musk refused to answer yes-or-no questions with yes or no. He’d dance around, offer context nobody asked for, and occasionally “forget” things he’d testified to just that morning. At one point he scolded defense lawyer William Savitt like a school principal correcting a student.

I watched the jury. A few of them glanced at each other during one particularly testy exchange. One woman just stared.

Here’s the thing: Musk’s whole persona is built on being the smartest guy in the room. But in a courtroom, that act falls apart fast. Judges don’t care about your Twitter followers. Juries don’t care about your rocket ships. They care about whether you can answer a simple question.

And Musk couldn’t.

He kept trying to control the narrative, the same way he controls every other conversation. But cross-examination isn’t a conversation. It’s a trap, and he walked right into it.

I’ve covered enough trials to know that wealthy defendants often struggle with this. They’re used to people deferring to them. But Musk took it to another level. He literally argued with the judge at one point.

The irony is thick. This is the guy who constantly complains about the legal system, who tweets about frivolous lawsuits and activist judges. Yet here he was, doing more damage to his own case than any plaintiff’s lawyer ever could.

If I were on that jury, I’d have a hard time taking him seriously after that performance. And I suspect the real jurors felt the same way.

Look, I’m not a lawyer. But I’ve watched enough trials to know that credibility matters more than facts in a lot of cases. And Musk spent hours shredding his own credibility.

The worst part? His lawyer seemed to know it was happening. You could see the frustration on his face during breaks. But there’s only so much you can do when your client refuses to follow the simplest instructions.

Musk’s worst enemy in court isn’t some Silicon Valley rival or a crafty plaintiff’s attorney. It’s himself. Always has been.