The short seller Left appeared in court to testify, insisting that his trading activity has always been consistent with his public statements.

During the trial in the United States court, Andrew Left told the jury that his public statements about the companies in question never conflicted with his short or long positions in those stocks, thus strongly refuting the core points of the government's criminal charges. The key issue in this trial is to define when "expressing personal opinions" crosses the line into "market manipulation." The prosecution insists that Left's private communications are enough to prove that he engaged in fraudulent behavior by being inconsistent when publicly expressing his trading intentions. The prosecution alleges that Left misled investors in October 2018 by taking long positions in Tesla and then quickly selling his shares for profit, but Left argues that reducing long positions is not the same as taking a short position on the stock.