The Tesla “whistleblower” who was accused of sabotage has filed a counterclaim against Tesla and Elon Musk, arguing that his former employer defamed him when it told media outlets that he had threatened a mass shooting. 
 
 Martin Tripp, a former technician at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, was sued by the electric car company on 20 June, just days after Musk had sent a company email stating that an employee had engaged in “quite extensive and damaging sabotage” against the company’s computer systems. 
 
 The lawsuit accused Tripp of hacking, theft, and making false claims to the media about punctured battery cells and excess scrap material. 
 
 Tripp fought back, telling reporters that he was not a saboteur, but a whistleblower who had leaked information to a reporter for Business Insider out of environmental and safety concerns. 
 
 In response to Tripp’s claim to be a whistleblower, Musk told the Guardian by email on the evening of 20 June that Tesla had “received a call at the Gigafactory that he was going to come back and shoot people”. 
 
 Elon Musk: the volatile visionary at risk of steering Tesla off the road Read more 
 
 The Guardian did not publish the allegation, but other media outlets did, based on an official statement from a company spokesperson stating that the call came “from a friend of Mr Tripp”. The local sheriff’s department announced that “there was no credible threat” the next day. 
 
 Earlier this month, Musk faced significant backlash after he baselessly accused one of the British cave divers involved in the rescue of 12 Thai children of being a “pedo”. The diver said he was considering legal action, and Musk eventually apologized. 
 
 William Fischbach, one of the attorneys representing Tripp, said Tuesday: “Tesla has made several false and defamatory statements about Mr Tripp in an effort to discredit him before the general public.” 
 
 Another attorney for Tripp, Robert D Mitchell, added: “There were very suspicious, very contradictory stories that were advanced by Tesla. We’re going to be interested in getting to the bottom of how the story was concocted.” 
 
 Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously challenged the accuracy of Tripp’s claims. 
 
 
 
 The counterclaim, filed in federal court in Nevada on Tuesday, reasserts claims that Tripp had made to Business Insider about his concerns over “high levels of waste and scrap”, “unnerving, dangerous and wasteful business practices” and “punctured battery modules”. 
 
 The countersuit also alleges that Tesla never received any phone call from “a friend of Mr Tripp” and argues that even if the company had received such a call, it acted “with at least negligence” by failing to “conduct a reasonable investigation” prior to publicizing the information. 
 
 The suit further alleges various problems with Tesla’s behavior on the night of the alleged shooting threat, stating that Tesla had “provided inconsistent responses” to law enforcement when asked whether the caller was male or female; that Tesla “provided false information” to law enforcement when it claimed to be able to “verify” that Tripp was “armed”; and that Tesla “appeared to know exactly where Mr Tripp was located” during the course of the sheriff’s department’s investigation, telling investigators that “little birds sing”. 
 
 
 
 Mitchell and Fischbach declined to comment on the source of their information about Tesla’s statements to investigators, but they said they had confidence in their evidence. 
 
 The suit also addresses a series of tweets that Musk sent about the Business Insider reporter, Linette Lopez, to whom Tripp had leaked information. 
 
 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Indeed, very simple question. To be specific: @lopezlinette, did you compensate or promise to compensate Martin Tripp for inside information about Tesla? Did he, under that inducement, provide you with exaggerated negative info, which you printed, but turned out to be untrue? 
 
 The countersuit claims that the tweet “falsely implies that Mr Tripp accepted a bribe from Ms Lopez in exchange for providing information”, which Tripp denies. 
 
 Tripp is seeking at least $1m and punitive damages for claims of defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 
 
 The countersuit comes at a sensitive time for Tesla, which is under intense pressure from investors to prove that it can mass-produce its electric vehicles and turn a profit. 
 
 Tesla will announce its quarterly financial results Wednesday. ||||| Martin Tripp, an ex-Tesla technician the company has accused of hacking and sabotage, has now countersued his former employer and claimed that Tesla defamed him. 
 
 Since Tesla fired Tripp and sued him more than a month ago for alleged trade secrets theft, he has hired a New York attorney to help him file a formal whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 
 
 CEO Elon Musk has suggested that there could be tens of "bad apples" who have also committed "sabotage" against the company in an apparent effort to thwart Tesla's ambitious promised ramp-up to produce 5,000 Model 3s per week. In recent months the company mounted an unusual tent-like apparatus known as a Sprung structure that houses a new assembly line as part of its factory in Fremont, California. 
 
 However, to date, Tesla has not brought any cases against any further alleged saboteurs. 
 
 In a new lawsuit filed Tuesday by his new Arizona-based legal team, Tripp more fully explained his concerns. 
 
 A long, dusty road 
 
 Tripp previously worked at the Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, which manufactures Tesla’s batteries. 
 
 There, he "observed that the waste and scrap levels and non-conforming materials generated by Counterdefendant dramatically increased" after the March 2018 so-called "March to 2,500." The "March to 2,500" referred to Tesla's goal of ramping up to 2,500 Model 3s and then 5,000 by July 2018. 
 
 The lawsuit goes on to explain that Tripp "raised his concerns about the seemingly exorbitant amounts of scrap with his managers and supervisors but no action was taken." On May 16, 2018, he went so far as to email Musk himself and included supporting "graphical charts," in anticipation of Musk’s visit to the Gigafactory. 
 
 As the civil complaint continues: 
 
 Later in the afternoon on May 16, 2018, Mr. Tripp's Manufacturing Engineer Manager asked Mr. Tripp to "forward" him the "email to Elon so that I can avoid getting fired tonight." After Mr. Tripp asked why the Manufacturing Engineer Manager would get fired, the Manufacturing Engineer Manager explained: "because I'm the guy showing him the line and our problems like yield, the guy standing in front of him is the guy who gets fired, and tonight I’m the guy in front of him." That same day, a Design Engineer asked Mr. Tripp to "clean up" the stator production line area so Mr. Musk would not see the mounds of scrap and waste lying on the ground. Mr. Tripp declined to do so because he had repeatedly complained to his supervisors about that very issue over the course of several months, but his complaints had been ignored. Mr. Tripp wanted Mr. Musk to observe how the Gigafactory was actually being operated. The next day, May 17, 2018, Mr. Tripp was "reassigned" to the battery module production line. … Perhaps most egregiously, Mr. Tripp was told by multiple process technicians and associates that a "teach pin" had been left on a robot used in the manufacturing process of battery modules, causing damage to the battery modules. Mr. Tripp was told by the process technicians and associates that when the robot had picked up a battery module, the teach pin, which had become "unthreaded" and "longer," struck the clamshell (i.e., the outer plastic coating) of the battery module, causing a dent and/or puncture. Mr. Tripp was further told that, eventually, the teach pin began puncturing the actual battery cells within the battery module. Approximately 1,173 battery modules had been damaged by this process. 
 
 For its part, Tesla has strongly denied that any such damaged batteries made it into any Model 3. The company has previously said in a statement that "Tripp is either not telling the truth or he simply has no idea what he is talking about." 
 
 Bye, bye, birdie? 
 
 In yet another bizarre turn in this twisted tale, in the immediate wake of the June 2018 lawsuit filed against Tripp, a woman at the Gigafactory said she received a call from an anonymous caller claiming that Tripp had threatened to "shoot the place up." 
 
 Tripp previously categorically denied making any such statement to Ars, which prompted a visit by the Storey County Sheriff. The local authorities ultimately determined that there was "no credible threat." 
 
 Even if Tesla did receive such a call, according to the lawsuit, Tesla "did not, based upon information and belief, conduct a reasonable investigation to determine whether the purported caller was actually a 'friend of Mr. Tripp' before making the foregoing false and defamatory publication, such as obtaining the name of the caller or ascertaining how the caller knew Mr. Tripp." 
 
 This, Tripp’s lawyers argue, constitutes "at least negligence." 
 
 Even more strangely, the lawsuit continues, during the sheriff's investigation, Tesla "appeared to know exactly where Mr. Tripp was located the majority of the time and, after being asked by the investigating deputies how it was aware of such information, [Tesla] simply replied ‘little birds sing.’" 
 
 Tesla did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment. ||||| Martin Tripp. Business Insider 
 
 Martin Tripp, a former process technician at Tesla who says he made $28 an hour, filed a countersuit against the company on Tuesday. 
 
 Tripp, 40, alleges that Tesla is not living up to its mission to improve the environment and instead is generating "large quantities of waste and 'scrap' vehicle parts lying haphazardly on the ground inside the Gigafactory," according to the counterclaim. 
 
 Tripp also alleges that Tesla consistently reused battery parts that had been discarded as waste. His filing says he "was even told by one colleague that the colleague, after seeing damaged products being reused, intentionally further damaged the parts to prevent them from being used in a Model 3." 
 
 More allegations from Tripp's counterclaim: 
 
 "In mid-May 2018, [Tesla's] Manufacturing Operating System ('MOS') showed that from January 1, 2018 to mid-May 2018, approximately $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 worth of battery module parts, including bandoliers and battery cells, had been categorized as 'Scrap.'" 
 
 Tripp also claims that punctured battery cells were reworked with glue and put back on the manufacturing line: "Based upon information and belief, no quality inspections were performed on these 'reworked' battery modules before they were returned to the manufacturing processing line. Mr. Tripp personally observed technicians perform this process on several battery modules." 
 
 Tripp claims that Tesla discontinued systems to track vehicle parts: "As a result, traceability is unknown for many vehicle-parts and/or materials which could have a drastic effect on determining where the part(s) were made, when, and by whom." 
 
 Tripp denies allegations that he hacked into Tesla's manufacturing operating system. 
 
 Tripp claims Tesla "published these false and defamatory statements out of malice and to retaliate against" him and "discredit him before the general public." 
 
 Earlier, Tripp leaked internal documents and other information to Business Insider. 
 
 A self-proclaimed former Tesla fanboy, Tripp claims that he tried bringing his concerns to his superiors and to Tesla CEO Elon Musk first but that nothing came of it. 
 
 Now Tripp is being sued by Tesla, which accuses him of hacking the company and transferring secret information to third parties. 
 
 Tesla also claimed it received a tip from a "friend" of Tripp who suggested Tripp might try to "shoot up" the Gigafactory. Law enforcement looked into it at the time and found no credible threat. 
 
 Tripp denies any violent intentions in his counterclaim and says Tesla declined to reveal the name of the "friend" who gave it the tip. 
 
 "Tesla has used strong-arm tactics and a defamatory smear campaign in an effort to bury the disconcerting information Martin Tripp learned as a Tesla employee and to discredit Mr. Tripp before the general public," Tripp's attorney, Robert D. Mitchell of Tiffany and Bosco, said in a statement to Business Insider. 
 
 "By filing its lawsuit against Mr. Tripp, Tesla has now forced the issues to the forefront, and Mr. Tripp looks forward to defending himself before a jury of his peers by showing that what he witnessed and repeatedly reported at Tesla is, in fact, true." 
 
 Tesla did not respond to requests for comment for this story. 
 
 What may happen when Tesla wants to sue you 
 
 Tripp's legal troubles with Tesla began on June 14 and 15, when the company's security team called him into meetings for questioning. 
 
 He tells Business Insider the first meeting lasted about six or seven hours. Tripp claims Tesla's team wanted to know how he allegedly ran queries into its manufacturing operating system, such as about Tesla's scrap waste and part prices, and why he'd do that. 
 
 Tripp says he told Tesla that he felt Musk was misleading investors about production numbers and that Tesla's security personnel laughed in response. 
 
 Tripp says he then took Tesla's team to an area where nonconforming battery parts were lying about. Some of those batteries were destined for rework, and he explained his fears about hurriedly reworked batteries going into "thermal runaway," a condition in which an overheating battery begins to destroy itself. 
 
 Tripp says he was eventually escorted out by security, at which point, he says, he found his car surrounded by further security in the Tesla parking lot. 
 
 Tesla security wouldn't leave until a truck came to escort Tripp out, he claims. The incident left him with the impression that he'd been let go from the company. 
 
 He was not. 
 
 The next day, Tripp says, Tesla's security team called him back for more questioning and then put him on "administrative leave." 
 
 Tripp recalls the second meeting with Tesla being shorter and less cordial than the first. Tesla's team asked similar questions and then started to ask stranger ones, Tripp claims. They wanted to know how he had allegedly managed to put a program into the MOS that ran queries into the system at the same time every day, searching for scrap costs. 
 
 According to Tripp, the security team told him it knew he had logged into nine computers and had the program running from three of them. 
 
 Tesla did not respond to request for comment on the meetings. In Tesla's complaint, Tesla alleges that in the meetings, Tripp admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla's MOS and to transferring "several gigabytes of confidential and proprietary Tesla data..." Tripp denies these accusations in his filing. He told Business Insider he didn't even know how to code. 
 
 "This ordeal, which, inter alia, implied that Mr. Tripp was a danger to those around him, was highly embarrassing and distressing to Mr. Tripp," Tripp claims in the filing. 
 
 Later, Musk wrote in a company-wide email that Tesla had a "saboteur" on its hands. Shortly after that, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Tripp. 
 
 In a now-public email exchange between Tripp and Musk, the Tesla CEO called Tripp a "horrible human being." 
 
 The company alleges that Tripp stole confidential data and exaggerated the numbers in that data to the media. Tesla also alleged that Tripp hacked into its MOS. 
 
 Tripp says his safety was jeopardized in the weeks that followed. 
 
 The counterclaim alleges that Tripp "has received numerous threats to his personal safety, which, upon information and belief, have been stirred by the foregoing false and defamatory statements published about him" by Tesla. It continues: "Mr. Tripp has even been followed and trailed on multiple occasions by unidentified individuals." 
 
 Claims and rumors 
 
 Rumors have flown around Tesla's factories about Tripp and the "saboteur." 
 
 An engineer at the Fremont, California, factory told Business Insider that the engineers thought it was crazy that any such "saboteur" could exist at all. In their opinion, this person would have to have been a professional hacker. 
 
 "The MOS configuration ... gets overwritten daily with an automatic push from a stash repository," the person said. "All changes on said stash are trackable and require approval from other members." 
 
 He added: "Pushing malicious software onto other people's computers would not be possible without their authorization unless [the person were] a professional hacker. To which then I would say, 'Why is [Tripp] working as a process technician?'" 
 
 In his counterclaim, Tripp maintains that the information he sent to Business Insider was accurate. 
 
 All of this comes at a critical time for Tesla. Analysts at Goldman Sachs say the company may have to raise money soon to maintain a comfortable cash position as it tries to scale its new Model 3 sedan amid production delays. 
 
 The company reports its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday. 
 
 If you are a Tesla employee or customer who has a story to share about a car or experience with the company, give me a shout at llopez@businessinsider.com. 
 
 Disclaimer: The author of this article is specifically named in the counterclaim, where Tripp alleges that statements Musk made on Twitter to @lopezlinette are false and defamatory.
– The technician accused of stealing data from Tesla's battery factory in Nevada is countersuing his former employer and CEO Elon Musk for defamation. "Tesla has made several false and defamatory statements about [Martin] Tripp in an effort to discredit him," a lawyer says. The Guardian specifically mentions Musk claiming on June 20 that Tesla "received a call at the Gigafactory that he was going to come back and shoot people." Per CNBC, a Tesla rep added "a friend of Mr. Tripp" claimed he would "shoot the place up." Tripp—who's painted himself as a whistleblower concerned by Tesla's "dangerous" practices, including alleged use of punctured battery cells repaired with glue, per Business Insider—described the claim as "insane." A day later, the local sheriff's department announced "there was no credible threat." That's because there was no phone call, and if there had been, Tesla acted with "at least negligence" in publicizing the information before investigating, reads Tripp's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Nevada, per Ars Technica. It further notes Tesla seemed to know Tripp's location during the law enforcement investigation and "provided false information" to authorities when claiming it could "verify" the 40-year-old was "armed." "We're … interested in getting to the bottom of how the story was concocted," a lawyer for Tripp tells the Guardian. Tripp, who denies Tesla's claim that he wrote software used to lift data from factory computers (he says he can't even code), is seeking at least $1 million plus punitive damages for alleged defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His lawsuit notes he's received "numerous threats" to his safety.