A deposition Elon Musk fought to keep confidential was released. Read the most interesting quotes.

• Elon Musk's deposition from a lawsuit alleging he falsely boosted a conspiracy theory was released.
• Musk's lawyers had attempted to prevent the deposition from being released, HuffPost reported.
• In the deposition, Musk said he might have financially impaired X more than helping it.

A deposition that Elon Musk's lawyer fought to keep from the public eye was released on Monday.

Musk sat for a deposition in March over a lawsuit that alleges the billionaire boosted a conspiracy theory that falsely affiliated 22-year-old Ben Brody with a neo-Nazi group.

Brody filed the lawsuit last fall after Musk promoted posts on his social media site X that falsely identified Brody as a man who had engaged in a brawl at a Pride event that had occurred between the two far-right groups: the Rose City Nationalists and the Proud Boys. The groups had intended to interrupt the LGBTQ+ event.

Last year, Musk responded to a series of posts on X about the incident that appeared to indicate Brody was one of the individuals from a video of the incident.

"Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member," Must wrote on X. "But nonetheless a probable false flag situation."

Brody is suing for $1 million in damages, accusing Musk of damaging his reputation. The 22-year-old said he was doxxed, harassed, and even forced to flee his home at one point due to the fallout from the posts on social media.

HuffPost was the first to report on the transcript of the deposition, which was released on Monday. A judge denied Musk's lawyer's efforts to mark the transcript as "confidential," the publication reported.

Take a look at some of the most interesting quotes from the two-hour deposition.

Musk says he 'may have done more to financially impair' X than to help it

In the deposition, Bankston asked Musk about a quote from Walter Isaacson's biography of the Tesla CEO.

In the book, Isaacson quotes Musk as saying: "I've shot myself in the foot so often, I ought to buy some Kevlar boots."

Musk said in the deposition that he's "guilty of many self-inflicted wounds."

"I may have done more to financially impair the company than to help it, but I certainly I — I do not guide my posts by what is financially beneficial but what I believe is interesting or important or entertaining to the public," Musk later said in response to a question from Bankston regarding whether he'd used his posts on X to boost the social media company formerly called Twitter.

Since Musk bought Twitter in 2022, the company has reportedly lost many of its biggest advertisers and Musk has faced criticism for some of his posts on the site, including one where he appeared to boost a post promoting the "great replacement" conspiracy theory that is commonly spread by white supremacists.

Fidelity lowered the value of its stake in Musk's social-media company in February — suggesting its valuation of X has dropped 73% since Musk bought the platform for $44 billion.

'One is my main account and the other is baby smoke 9000'

Musk admitted he'd briefly used "test account" on X in 2023, and appeared to say he also posted to an alternate account regularly called "baby smoke 9000."

Motherboard was the first to report on one of the suspected accounts, @ermnmusk, last year after Musk posted a screenshot of his Twitter account. Some users were able to track down the suspected additional account that appeared to be visible in the photo.

Musk appears to have used the @ermnmusk account to post on X from the perspective of his three-year-old son, also named X.

"I will finally turn 3 on May 4th!" the account posted in April 2023, according to Motherboard.

Musk's son with Grimes, X Æ A-12, was born on May 4.

"I wish I was old enough to go to nightclubs," another tweet from the account in 2023 read, according to Motherboard. "They sound so fun."

Musk said during his deposition that he'd used the alternate account for testing, but it was no longer in use.

"I briefly used this as a test account," Musk said. "There are only two accounts that I use on a regular basis. One is my main account and the other is baby smoke 9,000."

As far as Musk's mention of "baby smoke 9,000," it's not clear if Musk was referring to a username that's literally @babysmoke9000, but if he is, X currently lists that handle as not being in use.

The account @ermnmusk, on the other hand, posted on X as recently as Monday under the name "Elon Test."

'I rely upon Community Notes for fact-checking'

The X owner said he doesn't use any of the company's internal tools to verify the legitimacy of a post on the site before he interacts with it. Instead, he posts things with the intent of X's Community Notes feature allowing users to correct inaccuracies.

When asked by the lawyer if he'd tried to look into the information regarding Brody before he boosted posts on X that appeared to reference him, Musk said he hadn't.

"I don't recall securing other information," Musk responded.

"I think I really did this in good faith, because I would not ask for a fact-check which is what I do by adding Community Notes," Musk said, referencing how he had tagged Community Notes in his post.

The feature allows users to add notes to a post on X, but the note is only shown if enough people vote to have the note added and it "requires people who historically have disagreed to agree," Musk told Bankston.

"I rely upon Community Notes for fact-checking," Musk said. "I find it to be the best system on the internet."

' … the real plaintiff is the lawyer seeking money'

Musk also took some digs at the lawyer asking him questions.

When Bankston asked the billionaire if he understood that Brody was suing him, Musk said it was really Brody's lawyer who'd sued him.

"I view many cases, and probably this one too, that the real plaintiff is the lawyer seeking money, like you," Musk said.

Musk said social media attacks rarely have a 'meaningful negative impact' on someone's life

When asked whether he felt his posts involving Brody had negatively impacted the 22-year-old, Musk said he didn't think they had.

"People are attacked all the time in the media, online media, social media, but it is rare that that actually has a meaningful negative impact on their life," Musk said.

Musk and his attorney Alex Spiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bankston declined to comment.