On May 12, 2026, testifying in Musk v. Altman in federal court in Oakland, California, before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Sam Altman was asked about the 2023 removal and said: 'I was not trying to deceive the board.' He said he had been 'completely caught off guard' and had received little explanation beyond the board's candor finding. Asked whether he always tells the truth, he answered, 'I believe I'm a truthful person.' An advisory jury later found Musk had waited too long to sue.

The passage

I was not trying to deceive the board

The document

Document

CNBC live blog, 'OpenAI trial recap,' May 12, 2026 (Ashley Capoot, Jordan Novet); CNN Business, May 12, 2026 (Hadas Gold, Samantha Delouya, Lisa Eadicicco); both reporting the testimony directly

Dated

2026-05-12

Source

open the primary

Archived

primaries/openai-pulls-2026-09-08/cnbc-2026-05-12-openai-trial-recap.html

Who read it

joe, both reports fetched and archived 2026-09-08 (CNBC MD5 2c35b3d5ff5e0f112e9826edd178bbff; CNN MD5 bce7834b00e3d56011bc938d3b4abb92); identical quotation, same court, same date, independent reporters. The trial transcript itself is not held. Sworn public testimony, quoted exactly; placed beside X1 without comment.