close
close

Following news of a warning from the US Department of Justice, Elon Musk's super PAC did not announce a “daily” lottery winner on Wednesday

Following news of a warning from the US Department of Justice, Elon Musk's super PAC did not announce a “daily” lottery winner on Wednesday



CNN

Elon Musk's super PAC did not announce a winner for its “daily” $1 million raffle to registered swing state voters on Wednesday, the same day it was revealed that the Justice Department had warned Musk's group that its raffle would be illegal could.

The pro-Trump group America PAC had publicly named a winner every day since Saturday, when Musk announced he would award $1 million a day to those who signed his petition. The petition supports the 1st and 2nd Amendments, but importantly, only registered voters in the battleground states can sign the petition and are therefore eligible for the money.

CNN reported Wednesday afternoon that the Justice Department sent a warning letter to the super PAC, warning that the lottery may be violating federal law to offer incentives such as cash or prizes to induce voter registration, they said People briefed on the matter told CNN.

The super PAC has announced its winners to fanfare each day, with eye-catching videos posted on social media and celebratory tweets from Musk. It's unclear whether the Justice Department's letter is the reason the super PAC didn't publicly announce a winner on Wednesday.

CNN has reached out to the super PAC for comment.

The X owner and Tesla CEO has defended the giveaways multiple times on social media. Responding to a post that claimed Musk was “paying for Republican registration,” Musk said said on He did not address the potential legal problem of opening the lottery only to registered voters.

After Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and former attorney general, said Sunday that the giveaways were “deeply troubling” and deserved legal scrutiny, Musk said posted on his X platform, he said it was “concerning that he would say something like that.”

The Super PAC will take place on Sunday, the second day of the competition has reformulated his message around the giveaway and described the money as payment for a job. In social media posts, the group said the winners would be “selected to earn $1 million as a spokesperson for America PAC” – and then released pro-Trump testimonial videos featuring the winners.

However, several election law experts who spoke to CNN pointed out that the fine print on Musk's super PAC website explaining the official terms and conditions of participation has not changed.

Musk, the world's richest man, has supported Trump and donated more than $75 million to his pro-Trump super PAC. He said he hopes the sweepstakes will increase registration among Trump voters.

He made his first appearance with Trump on the campaign trail earlier this month, when he urged people to register to vote and posed a threat to Democrats at Trump's rally on the way back to Butler, Pennsylvania, where an assassination attempt was carried out in July represented for democracy.

Musk also held his own town hall meetings in Pennsylvania last week, where he urged voters to support Trump and promoted several debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

CNN's Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz and Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *