Elon Musk called the woman who accused him of sexually harassing her flight-attendant friend a 'far left' actor 'with a major political axe to grind'

• Elon Musk used Twitter on Thursday to rebut a woman's claim of sexual harassment.
• Musk called the accusations "utterly untrue" and called a person who talked to Insider a "liar."

Elon Musk took to Twitter on Thursday night to hit out at a woman who accused him of sexually harassing her friend aboard his private jet in 2016.

Insider published a report earlier Thursday in which Musk was accused of exposing himself during a massage and offering to buy a horse for a SpaceX flight attendant if she were willing to perform a sex act on him.

About seven hours after the piece was published, Musk responded to a Twitter user who wrote: "Where were these wild accusations against @elonmusk before he took a stand against the establishment?"

"Exactly," Musk tweeted, adding that the "wild accusations" were "utterly untrue."

He then called out a friend of the flight attendant who had made the claims and who talked to Insider for the article.

"But I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me 'exposed' — describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn't known by the public," Musk tweeted. "She won't be able to do so, because it never happened."

He went on to describe the woman's friend as "a far left activist/actress in LA with a major political axe to grind."

Asked by a Twitter user whether Musk responded to Insider's request for comment, he tweeted: "No, it was clear that their only goal was a hit price to interfere with the Twitter acquisition. The story was written before they even talked to me."

Contrary to Musk's claim, Insider quoted a response from him in its article. Answering via email, he said there was "a lot more to this story."

"If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light," he wrote to Insider, also calling the story a "politically motivated hit piece."

He also requested and was given more time to respond but ultimately gave no further comment before the story was published.

Musk, the world's richest person, has repeatedly argued he is being attacked for his political views. This week, he called the Democratic Party a "party of division and hate" while vowing to vote Republican.