Tesla CEO Musk facing defamation trial for 'pedo guy' tweet

Los Angeles: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his troublesome tweets are going on trial in a case pitting the billionaire against a British diver he allegedly dubbed a pedophile.

Vernon Unsworth, who helped rescue youth soccer players trapped underwater in a Thailand cave, is taking his defamation case against Musk to jurors Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court.

Musk has apologized for lashing out at Unsworth on Twitter by calling him pedo guy after the diver belittled Musk's efforts to help save the trapped boys.

Musk will be called to testify about the tweet widely interpreted to be a reference to a pedophile.

Musk has also run into problems with regulators and agreed to pay 40 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for Tesla tweets that sent stocks fluctuating.