PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The $1 million voter sweepstakes linked to billionaire Elon Musk was allowed to continue through Election Day because Philadelphia’s top prosecutor failed to show that it was an illegal lottery, a judge said in a new opinion.
District Attorney Larry Krasner had filed suit last month to try to have the sweepstakes shut down under Pennsylvania law. Krasner claimed the contest violated state election law and influenced voters. Musk and America PAC said it was about the Constitution and they were not telling people who to vote for.
“Although (Krasner) alleges that America PAC and Elon Musk ‘scammed’ people,” Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta wrote in the opinion Tuesday, “DA Krasner failed to provide any evidence of misuse beyond mere speculation.”
Krasner said the giveaways contradicted what Musk promised when he announced them during an appearance with the Trump campaign in Harrisburg, on Oct. 19:
“We’re going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk vowed.
The prize was open only to swing-state voters who signed a petition endorsing the constitutional right to free speech and to bear arms. Lawyers for the PAC revealed in court on Nov. 4, the day before the election, that the recipients did not win a game of chance, but were instead chosen to be paid spokespeople for the group.
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance," said Musk lawyer Chris Gober. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”
Chris Young, the director of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.
Young also acknowledged that the PAC made the recipients sign nondisclosure agreements.
“They couldn’t really reveal the truth about how they got the money, right?” asked Krasner lawyer John Summers.
“Sounds right,” Young said.
In an Oct. 20 social media post shown in court, Musk said anyone signing the petition had “a daily chance of winning $1M!”
Summers grilled Young on Musk's use of both the words “chance” and “randomly," prompting Young, who also serves as the PAC's treasurer, to concede the latter was not “the word I would have selected.” Young said the winners knew they would be called on stage but not specifically that they would win the money.
The disclosures prompted a lawyer Krasner to call the effort a “scam" that is "designed to actually influence a national election.”
Krasner said the first three winners, starting on Oct. 19, came from Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the state's Oct. 21 voter registration deadline.
“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner testified that day. “That’s what it is. A grift.” He argued that the more than 1 million people from seven states who registered were “scammed for their information.”
Other "winners" came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. It's not clear if anyone has yet actually received the money they were promised. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.
Musk’s lawyers, in closing arguments, defended the effort as “core political speech,” given that participants signed a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution.
Foglietta had denied Krasner’s petition after last week's hearing, but explained his reasoning only in the opinion on Tuesday, a week after the election. He also called Krasner’s request to shut down the sweepstakes somewhat moot, because Musk’s lawyers had said there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ended on Election Day.
Musk did not attend the hearing.
Musk, who committed more than $70 million to the PAC, which he co-founded with fellow Silicon Valley venture capitalists and tech businessmen to help Trump return to the White House and other Republicans win, has now been tapped to help lead a government efficiency effort.
Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. He also owns the social media platform X and the rocket ship maker SpaceX.