Matthew Smith 💙

On Thursday I wrote about the 2014 injunction Russell Brand obtained against a woman who accused him of assault. I've now obtained the final order. It's breathtaking. She had no lawyer. No trial. Yet she was silenced for life - even barred from speaking to the police. 🧵:

In March 2024, Elon Musk threatened Don Lemon on camera: “Choose your question carefully. There’s five minutes left.” Lemon asked it anyway. A few hours later, Musk killed his show. A year earlier, CNN had fired Lemon. Four months earlier, Musk had told advertisers leaving X to “go f*** themselves.” Earlier that same hour, he’d admitted taking ketamine every other week or so. In the video below, Musk is relaxed. He jokes that he only had “one puff” on Joe Rogan’s show and doesn’t even know how to smoke pot. Whatever he is taking, he says, “I should keep taking it.” Then Lemon brings up the advertisers. “Is this the question you want to ask?” Lemon’s questions are “not cogent,” Musk says. “You are upsetting me.” Hours later, Musk cancelled the deal. Lemon posted the full interview on YouTube anyway and sued Musk in August 2024. By January 2025, Musk was working in the White House. So who lost this interview: the man who lost his show, or the man who lost his cool?