- A lawsuit by the Philadelphia State Attorney’s Office could end Musk’s $1-a-day giveaway to voters Thursday.
- By then, the purpose of the gift will have been achieved.
- Mr. Musk has used this perk to encourage voter registration and drive swing-state voters to the polls.
The Philadelphia district attorney will take Elon Musk’s America PAC to court Thursday morning seeking to end a $1 million daily giveaway that the prosecutor’s office called an “illegal lottery” in a lawsuit filed Monday. It is planned.
“If not prohibited, their lottery scheme and unfair and deceptive practices would cause irreparable harm to Philadelphians (and other residents of Pennsylvania),” the lawsuit filed Monday by Assemblyman Larry Krasner says. “It would not only give people more freedom, but also undermine people’s right to free and fair elections.”
Mr. Krasner’s attorney was initially granted a Friday court date, but that was later moved to Thursday. Lawyers are asking Musk and his PAC to “restraint and prohibit the promotion, maintenance, and operation of the Lottery,” according to the court calendar and a draft injunction filed in the lawsuit.
Krasner wants to stop Musk from offering a chance to win $1 million every day he signs a petition supporting the Constitution and the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.
This giveaway project, which began on October 19th, has two pitfalls. Participants must be a resident of one of the seven battleground states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, or North Carolina. Participants must also be a registered voter to apply.
By Thursday, much of the benefit’s purpose will have been fulfilled: providing Democratic lawmakers with financial incentives to register to vote for Donald Trump. Voter registration ended in Pennsylvania a week ago.
Nevada and North Carolina are the only battleground states with voter registration next week.
But the lawsuit was widely reported to have erupted on Monday morning, after which X’s America PAC site was flooded with posts about giveaways and Pennsylvania. Musk founded the PAC and owns the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Pennsylvanians, today and tomorrow are the final two days of on-demand voting,” the PAC posted. Also on Monday, PAC announced the winner of a $10 million prize.
Musk’s representatives and lawyers did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment on the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for America’s PAC declined to comment, instead directing BI to a new post on the PAC’s X account showing a photo of “Jordan from Hastings, Michigan” holding a mock-up of a $1 million check.
A Hastings man was named the latest winner hours after the lawsuit was filed.
The state attorney’s office’s request to halt the gift will be heard at 10 a.m. Thursday in Philadelphia County Civil Court before Judge Angelo J. Folietta, a Democratic candidate who joined the bench in 2012.
The case was reassigned to Judge Forietta from the original judge, Philadelphia County Civil Court Judge Ann Marie B. Coyle. Judge Anne Marie B. Coyle joined the bench in 2013 after running as a Republican candidate. Court records do not list a specific reason for the reassignment.
Krasner’s lawsuit alleges the giveaway is an unregulated lottery ticket, in violation of Pennsylvania law.
Mr. Musk and his PAC “kept important aspects of the lottery secret,” the complaint said, including withholding details such as contest rules, odds of winning, and how winners were selected.
Musk called the selection of the winner “random.”
“Every day from now until the election, we will randomly award $1 million,” the complaint said, citing a video post from Musk’s X account.
He said the purpose of the giveaway was to inform people about the election, explaining in the lawsuit that in the same video, “I thought, how can I get people to know about the election?”
The complaint also states that “defendants have already illegally obtained data from more than 280,000 unsuspecting Pennsylvanians and will not be harmed if they are prohibited from engaging in future fraudulent activity.” There is.
The proposal has been criticized by Democrats as a registration money fundraiser aimed at boosting Trump’s numbers. Federal law prohibits paying anyone to vote or register to vote.
Legal experts previously told Business Insider that America PAC’s contest likely violated the spirit of the law and may have crossed the line entirely.
Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, said it would be surprising for the Justice Department to take action given the short time left until Election Day. The Department of Justice sent a letter to America PAC warning that the giveaway may be illegal, a development first reported by 24sight News. America PAC did not announce a winner that day, but has resumed doing so.
Musk has become one of the most vocal Republican major donors in the presidential race. He just completed a series of town halls in Pennsylvania, the biggest battleground state in the race.
Oct. 30: This article has been updated to reflect that the original court date, Friday, has been moved to Thursday and a different judge is hearing the case.