There was a point in the not-too-distant past in which Elon Musk said he intended to keep his wallet closed in the 2024 election cycle. The conspiratorial billionaire ultimately changed his mind and began investing heavily in support of Republican candidates up and down the ballot.
In fact, the world’s wealthiest man even helped create a super PAC that, among other things, created a $1 million “lottery” of sorts: If you registered to vote in a battleground state, and you’re willing to sign an America PAC petition, you too might pick up a seven-figure check.
If that doesn’t sound altogether legal to you, you’re not alone. As my MSNBC colleague Lisa Rubin explained, because federal law already prohibits paying any person for their vote or even to register to vote, “a group of former GOP Justice Department officials even asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to open an investigation.”
We don’t know for sure whether or not that has happened, or will ever happen, though the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section reportedly contacted America PAC, warning that these giveaways might be in conflict with federal election law.
The district attorney’s office in Philadelphia has apparently gone one step further. NBC News reported:
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is suing Elon Musk and his super PAC to block their million-dollar giveaway to registered voters, seeking to halt the lottery-style stunt that election experts, and the Department of Justice, have warned might violate federal law. Krasner is seeking an injunction: he argued in a filing that the effort is an illegal, unregulated lottery, sidestepping the question of whether it violates vote-buying laws.
“America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens — and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) — to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. That is a lottery,” the suit alleges. “And it is indisputably an unlawful lottery. Under unambiguous Pennsylvania law, all lotteries in Pennsylvania must be regulated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
An attorney representing America PAC did not respond immediately to NBC News’ request for comment on the suit.
Time will tell when and/or whether a judge will set a hearing in this matter, though the local prosecutor is clearly counting on swift action. Watch this space.
