This bit of news dropped out of the blue today and it could have significant implications for the new owner of Twitter. The U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena to Elon Musk seeking documents and information related to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. (Who absolutely committed suicide in jail and couldn’t possibly have been murdered in some sort of contract hit job.) But the subpoena doesn’t appear to suggest that Musk was in some way involved with Epstein’s trafficking activities, or at least not at first glance. It instead says that Epstein may have “referred or attempted to refer” Musk to be a client of JP Morgan. JP Morgan is at the heart of an ongoing lawsuit in which the company is accused of enabling and benefiting from Epstein’s trafficking activities. But the trafficking does come up again later in the document. (CNBC)

The U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena to Tesla CEO Elon Musk seeking documents for that government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over sex trafficking by the bank’s late longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein, a court filing revealed Monday.

That filing said the Virgin Islands has tried unsuccessfully to serve Musk with the subpoena, which was issued on April 28, because of suspicion that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer” Musk as a client to JPMorgan.

The U.S. territory asked Manhattan federal court Judge Jed Rakoff in the filing to allow it to serve Musk with the subpoena with Tesla’s registered agent.

Further down, the subpoena also directs Musk to produce ” all documents reflecting or regarding Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and/or his procurement of girls or women for consensual sex.” Why would Musk have any documents like that? If he did, that would at least suggest that he may have been traveling in those circles at some point.

For his part, Musk is calling the allegations “idiotic.” He didn’t provide an official response to the subpoena thus far, but he comment on Twitter. (Of course)

This is idiotic on so many levels:

1. That cretin never advised me on anything whatsoever.

2. The notion that I would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb crook is absurd.

3. JPM let Tesla down ten years ago, despite having Tesla’s global commercial banking…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2023

If you expand Musk’s tweet, you’ll see that he claims that he and Tesla have “never forgiven” JP Morgan.

Leaving aside any salacious suggestions about sex trafficking, I’m unsure what sort of wrongdoing would be implied if Epstein “referred or attempted to refer” Musk to JP Morgan as a client. Having your name connected to Epstein in any fashion is sort of a black eye, but JP Morgan is one of the largest banking and investment firms in the country. They did business with a lot more people than just Epstein.

The lawsuit against JPM appears to be based on allegations that they profited from Epstein’s sex trafficking activities. But unless they can show that Elon Musk was on the island at some point (which they don’t seem to be claiming), all they would be likely to find is that Musk took out some loans from them for Tesla or one of his other companies. Where’s the crime in that?

We’ll stick a pin in this one. It doesn’t sound like there’s very much to this story unless something far more provable and damning emerges.