WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Friday sent a lawsuit seeking to halt billionaire Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaways to registered US voters back to a state court in Pennsylvania.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has pressed ahead with the sweepstakes while the lawsuit filed by Philadelphia’s chief prosecutor is pending, giving $1 million to a Michigan man on Friday and promising to continue the daily awards until Election Day.
District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, sued Musk and his pro-Trump political action committee, America PAC, this week, calling the $1 million giveaways to registered voters in election battleground states “an illegal lottery scheme.”
Musk’s lawyers filed a motion seeking to move the case to federal court but District Court Judge Gerald Pappert batted it back to state court on Friday, saying that was the proper jurisdiction.
The Justice Department warned Musk and his America PAC last week that the sweepstakes may violate federal law, which prohibits paying people to register to vote.
According to the America PAC website, 14 people, including four in Pennsylvania, have received the $1 million awards so far.
Musk, 53, who also owns X, formerly Twitter, has thrown his millions, time and considerable influence into backing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump since endorsing him in July.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has reportedly donated $118 million to his political action committee, an organization which collects funds for elections.
He has also appeared on stage with Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and hosted a series of town halls on his own in the eastern state seen as critical in Tuesday’s election.
Musk, who previously supported Barack Obama but has become increasingly conservative in recent years, peppers his 202 million followers on X daily with messages championing Trump and denigrating his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
