UPDATE (Oct. 28, 2024, 10:12 a.m. ET): Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Monday filed a civil legal action to halt America PAC’s $1 million daily giveaway in Pennsylvania.
You might have heard that Elon Musk’s super PAC has given away $1 million checks to voters through a daily lottery of sorts. To enter, one must be registered to vote in a swing state and sign a petition sponsored by his group, America PAC, stating they favor free speech and the right to bear arms.
But because federal law prohibits paying any person for their vote or even to register to vote, some legal scholars, like NBC News/MSNBC election law analyst Rick Hasen, sounded an immediate alarm about Musk’s giveaway scheme. A group of former GOP Justice Department officials even asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to open an investigation. And while it’s not clear that Garland has done that, public reporting, including by NBC News, indicates the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section has at least sent a letter to America PAC warning that the giveaway may violate federal law.
Although America PAC announced two winners on Thursday, the group did not announce a winner on Wednesday after awarding $1 million to registered voters the previous four days.
Meanwhile, a source familiar with America PAC’s efforts told NBC News earlier this week, “The PAC is confident in the legality of this initiative.”
That made me wonder: Why is the super PAC so confident? And who exactly is providing legal advice to the group?
Federal Election Commission filings by America PAC may reflect the answer. According to publicly available FEC data, America PAC has made payments to only one firm — The Gober Group PLLC – where the descriptions of the disbursements contain the words “legal” or “law.” Those payments — made in July, August, September and October of this year — total over $247,000. (At least part of the October payment covered “travel” in addition to “legal consulting,” according to the FEC data.)
That begs a second question: What or who is The Gober Group?
Although the firm’s website is no longer accessible, a version saved in July 2024 reflects that the firm was founded by attorney Chris Gober, who has previously represented conservative luminaries like Sen. Ted Cruz and podcaster Ben Shapiro. Indeed, Gober’s biography touts his “dozens” of wins before the FEC; his lead role in drawing Texas’ new congressional maps following the 2020 census; his prior, senior legal roles at the Republican National Committee and its Senate-specific arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee; and a client base of “dozens of U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, governors, and state attorneys general across the country.” And it mentions that Gober has connections to two Supreme Court Justices: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, whom he helped prepare for their confirmation hearings.
So is Chris Gober the legal mastermind behind Musk’s massive checks? Veteran political journalist Tom LoBianco, writing for his own Substack, said the DOJ’s letter was indeed sent to Gober Monday and that while it “did not specify any immediate legal action … it did spell out the penalties for breaking U.S. voting laws, including possible imprisonment of up to five years.”
The real question then is whether Gober remains sanguine about the lawfulness of Musk’s handouts, especially given the absence of a lottery winner announcement on Wednesday. Gober did not respond to MSNBC’s attempts to reach him for comment. Stay tuned.
