A judge in Philadelphia has turned down District Attorney Larry Krasner’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from giving away $1 million to registered voters in swing states every day.
Judge Angelo Foglietta turned down the DA’s request to stop the prizes right away after Musk’s lawyer said the winners were not picked at random, Krasner’s claim that the freebies were like an illegal lottery.
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance. We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow,” attorney Chris Gober told the court, according to the Associated Press.
Chris Young, the head of Musk’s America PAC, said in court that the prize winners were carefully chosen so that the PAC could “feel out their personality” and make sure they had values that were similar to theirs.
Musk’s lawyers also said that people who win the $1 million prizes are paid to talk about America PAC, and that stopping the giveaways would break their “core political speech.” The team of CEOs of Tesla and X also said that Krasner’s work was pointless because no other Pennsylvanians would be chosen before Election Day, when the giveaway stops.
He has been giving away $16 million to people who have signed his petition in support of free speech and the right to bear arms since October 19.
Signatories must also be registered to vote in one of the seven states that will decide the election: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin. People who sign must also be qualified to win the seven-figure prize.
Amid the revelation that winners were not being randomly drawn, Krasner derided Musk’s program as a “grift.”
“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery. That’s what it is. A grift. They were scammed for their information. It has almost unlimited use,” the DA said
Musk, who has endorsed former President Donald Trump, is expected to reveal the final prize winner on Election Day.
Musk has made a huge donation to a political organization aligned with Trump, officially making him a Republican “megadonor.”
Musk gave $75 million to a superPAC he set up over the past three months, according to election-related financial disclosures, Reuters reported.
America PAC, which aims to mobilize voters in closely contested states that could determine the election outcome, spent approximately $72 million during the July-September period, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.
