SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell defended Elon Musk in an e mail to workers closing week, responding to sexual misconduct allegations directed on the CEO, CNBC has discovered.
“In my view, I consider the allegations to be false; now not as a result of I paintings for Elon, however as a result of I’ve labored intently with him for two decades and not noticed nor heard the rest comparable to those allegations,” Shotwell wrote in a companywide e mail despatched on Friday and noticed by means of CNBC.
Musk has denied the allegations, which declare he propositioned a flight attendant on considered one of SpaceX’s non-public jets in 2016, calling them “wild accusations.”
In a reaction to Trade Insider, which reported the allegations and that the flight attendant was once paid $250,000 severance after confronting the corporate, Musk stated there’s “much more to this tale,” describing it as a “politically motivated hit piece.” Neither Musk nor SpaceX’s vice chairman of the prison division, Christopher Cardaci, denied the fee in statements to Trade Insider.
Shotwell emphasised in her e mail that she “won’t ever touch upon any prison issues involving employment problems” prior to noting Musk publicly denied the allegations as “totally unfaithful” in a tweet.
Shotwell, who’s No. 2 at SpaceX and the corporate’s most sensible feminine govt, additionally famous within the e mail that SpaceX has a “ZERO tolerance” coverage for harassment, including that each accusation is taken significantly and investigated, “irrespective of who’s concerned.”
SpaceX didn’t in an instant reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon Shotwell’s e mail.
SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell
Jay Westcott / NASA
