Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO/AP
Voters in swing states who received notice of a $1 million check from Elon Musk should know two things: Simple luck is not how this happened—and you are now on the hook to be an official spokesperson for Musk’s America super PAC.
That’s according to a lawyer for the tech billionaire, who acknowledged in court on Monday amid a lawsuit alleging that the contest is an illegal lottery, that recipients are not randomly selected. The claim comes despite Musk’s initial description of the contest when it was first announced last month.
“I have a surprise for you,” Musk had said at a pro-Trump event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “Which is that we are going to be awarding 1 million dollars, randomly, to people who have signed the petition, every day from now until the election.”
The announcement quickly drew the attention of Justice Department officials who warned that the scheme may violate federal law prohibiting paying people to register to vote. After a brief pause, Musk’s super PAC resumed the controversial payouts, which prompted the current lawsuit from Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner seeking to block the contest before Election Day.
“There is no prize to be won,” Chris Gober, an attorney for Musk, said at Monday’s hearing. “Instead recipients must fulfill contractual obligations to serve as a spokesperson for the PAC.”
That’s probably news for the 14 recipients, nearly all of whom NBC News reports are either registered Republicans or Republican-leaning.
While a judge on Monday rejected Musk’s bid to move the lawsuit to federal court, the giveaways are unlikely to be stopped before Tuesday. But what’s the ROI on a $1 million a day to voters already primed to vote Trump? Perhaps evidence to back your anti-democratic belief that American voters can be bought.
