Elon Musk Trashes Alex Gibney Documentary as Lawyer Rejects Starlink Election Implication

Elon Musk has intensified his criticism of Alex Gibney's new documentary Musk after its 8 September premiere at the Venice Film Festival, while his lawyer has separately threatened legal action over what he says is a false implication that Musk used Starlink to influence the 2024 US presidential election.

The nearly four-hour film examines Musk's business career, political influence and personal relationships.

It is scheduled for a US theatrical release on 16 October through Bleecker Street. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, declined to be interviewed for the documentary.

Elon Musk Criticises Alex Gibney's Documentary

Musk responded to coverage of the film on X on 9 September, attacking Gibney and questioning the credibility of people interviewed for the project.

'Gibney just assembled a hit list of people who either have an axe to grind or don't even know me,' Musk wrote. In the same exchange, he said the filmmaker had 'ZERO integrity' and called him a 'horrible human.'

Musk also replied to an X user who complained about repeated media coverage of the documentary and urged others to 'deny, ignore, move on.' Musk responded: 'It's a psy op.'

The wording matters because Musk did not, in that exchange, explicitly state that the documentary itself was a 'psy op.' He made his reply in response to a post about the coverage surrounding the film.

The documentary includes Ashley St. Clair, a former conservative commentator who shares a child with Musk. In the film, St. Clair describes Musk as displaying unusual confidence that Donald Trump would win the 2024 presidential election.

According to reports, St. Clair says Musk told her before the election that he would 'unleash the anomaly in the matrix.' The film then shows a text attributed to Musk reading: 'I have ten thousand lasers in space.'

When Gibney asks whether she believed Musk was referring to Starlink, St. Clair says she did not know where else he would have space lasers.

The sequence does not establish that Starlink was used to manipulate votes or election results. IBTimes UK has not independently authenticated the text shown in the documentary or St. Clair's account of the exchange.

Musk Lawyer Challenges Starlink Election Implication

Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, has since threatened legal action over the election-related sequence. In a letter reported by People, Spiro alleged that the film creates a false impression that Musk used Starlink to affect the 2024 election.

Spiro said Starlink 'was not connected to vote tabulation' and argued that a documentary can create a defamatory implication through editing and presentation even without making an explicit accusation.

Election officials and cybersecurity experts had already rejected similar claims after the 2024 election. The Associated Press reported that officials in several battleground states said their voting equipment did not use Starlink and was not connected to the internet for vote tabulation. Some jurisdictions used Starlink for electronic poll books, which are used for voter check-in rather than counting ballots.

The documentary therefore raises questions about the meaning of the messages attributed to Musk but does not provide evidence that Starlink changed or manipulated the election result.

St. Clair also says in the film that she rejected a proposed $40 million (£29.5 million) non-disclosure agreement after her relationship with Musk. Musk disputed that account on X, writing: 'She was never offered that and has a history of making false claims.'

Musk's political activity remains relevant context. OpenSecrets calculated that he donated more than $291 million (£215 million) to Republican candidates, political committees and other outside groups during the 2024 election cycle. That spending documents his political support, but it does not substantiate claims that he or Starlink interfered with vote counting.

Gibney's film premiered out of competition in Venice and is due in U.S. cinemas on 16 October. As of 10 September, the election-related claims highlighted in the documentary remain contested, while no evidence cited in the available reporting establishes that Starlink manipulated the 2024 presidential vote.