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Elon Musk dodged cameras ahead of courthouse testimony. Snubbed photogs blamed a ‘decoy’ Tesla.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

It all happened in a flash.

A “decoy” Tesla distracted a scrum of photographers trying to get a good shot of Elon Musk as he entered a San Francisco courthouse on Wednesday, two cameramen on the scene told Business Insider.

“100% a decoy. 100%,” said David Morris, a frustrated yet impressed Bloomberg News photographer. “They had us. It was done very well, actually.”

The Tesla CEO was expected to arrive at the San Francisco federal courthouse on Wednesday to testify in a trial over a lawsuit brought by former Twitter shareholders. They alleged the billionaire violated securities laws in 2022 by driving down the share price of Twitter before he bought it and renamed it X. Musk has said he complied with the law in his communications about the social media company.

According to two photographers on a stakeout outside the courthouse, a Tesla pulled up on the curb, and security guards stepped out to surround it.

As soon as the group of news photographers coalesced around the Tesla — anticipating Musk would step out — an SUV that had been parked a short distance away pulled up right in front of the courthouse door, the photographer said. Musk and his security team ran out of the car and up the courthouse steps, they said.

“He was like probably at least a hundred feet away from us,” Morris said. “And then we noticed that. And it was like three seconds — out of the car, in the door.”


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Elon Musk, center, arrives for a Twitter shareholder trial at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in San Francisco.

AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez



The photographers ultimately got only a handful of pictures of Musk, on the steps entering the courthouse and going through the metal detectors.

“There was security standing in front of him to try to make it so it was hard to get a good photo,” Josh Edelson, a freelance photographer working for Getty Images, told Business Insider.

Musk didn’t make it easy, Edelson said.

“He didn’t look at us. He kept his head looking to the side, so he didn’t look very good,” he said. “It was just a profile shot. It was very obviously a position where he wanted to make it hard for us.”

The entire scene was captured by NBC journalist Scott Budman, who posted a video on X.

After Musk entered the building, the Tesla, which appears to be a Model S, zoomed away without anyone else getting out, Morris said.

Attorneys for Musk didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The photographers outside the San Francisco courthouse will have another chance to capture Musk when he leaves the building.

Morris told Business Insider that Bloomberg assigned two photographers for the day — one to cover each exit.

“It’s always a fifty-fifty chance,” he said.




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Zuckerberg’s courthouse entourage showed up in Meta Ray-Bans

by with No Comment Xpandfy

As Mark Zuckerberg was ushered into the Los Angeles Superior Court early on Wednesday morning, one accessory in his entourage stood out: Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

Zuckerberg, wearing a navy blue suit and tie, arrived without any glasses. Flanking either side of him as he walked up to the courthouse were longtime executive assistant Andrea Besmehn and an unidentified man donning Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses.

Meta declined to comment about the accessory choice.

AI-powered smart glasses weren’t just a hot accessory in the California sun. They were a hot topic inside the courtroom.

The judge presiding over the trial announced that anyone using glasses to record inside the courtroom would be “held in contempt of the court,” according to CNBC.

This isn’t the first trial where Meta’s glasses have caused issues.

Last year, while Meta battled the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust allegations, New York Times reporter Mike Isaac posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he had been reprimanded by the court for wearing Meta Ray-Bans.


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Andrea Besmehn (left) and an unidentified man donning Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses while accompanying Zuckerberg.

Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images; Mike Blake/Reuters



The glasses cameo came as Zuckerberg took the stand in a Los Angeles trial accusing major social media companies of building addictive products that harm young users. The case centers on a now-20-year-old plaintiff, identified in court filings as “KGM,” who alleged that Instagram and YouTube worsened her depression and suicidal thoughts after she started using the apps as a child. TikTok and Snap have already settled, leaving Meta and Google’s YouTube as the remaining defendants in the trial, which could shape similar lawsuits nationwide.

The trial underway in Los Angeles is focused on design features that plaintiffs say keep teens scrolling. Zuckerberg’s testimony follows an earlier appearance from Instagram chief Adam Mosseri.

Meta’s Ray Ban smart glasses have become a surprise hit. On the company’s earnings call last month, Zuckerberg said that sales of the glasses more than tripled in 2025, and compared the moment to the shift from flip phones to smartphones.

Meta has increasingly positioned the glasses as a vehicle for its AI ambitions. In addition to taking pictures and playing music, users can ask questions to Meta AI, Meta’s AI assistant, about anything that they’re looking at through the glasses.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Meta is planning to add facial recognition technology to the glasses.




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