District attorney says awards to registered voters from billionaire\u2019s pro-Trump America Pac are an \u2018illegal lottery\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A judge ordered all parties, including Elon Musk, to attend a court hearing in Philadelphia<\/a> on Thursday in a lawsuit seeking to stop a political action committee controlled by the billionaire from awarding $1m to registered US voters in battleground states before the 5 November election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Philadelphia district attorney\u2019s office filed the lawsuit on Monday. It called the giveaway by Musk\u2019s America Pac, which backs Donald Trump, an \u201cillegal lottery\u201d that entices Pennsylvania<\/a> residents to share personal data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is further ordered that all parties must be present at the time of the hearing,\u201d a judge wrote on Wednesday in an order with the county court of common pleas. The hearing in the case was moved up to Thursday morning from Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A representative for America Pac did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk\u2019s representatives have not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk has promised to give $1m each day to someone who signs his online free-speech and gun-rights petition. Legal experts consulted by Reuters last week were divided on whether the giveaway violates federal laws that make it a crime to pay or offer to pay a person to register to vote. The justice department sent a letter to America Pac warning that the billionaire\u2019s giveaways for registered voters who sign his petition may violate federal law, CNN reported last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before an extremely tight presidential race between Trump and Kamala Harris, Pennsylvania is seen as a crucial swing state that could determine the outcome of the election. \u201cPennsylvania will be a decisive Republican victory,\u201d Musk tweeted on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania\u2019s Democratic governor, said earlier this month that he thought law enforcement should look into the legality of the giveaway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians,\u201d Shapiro told NBC\u2019s Meet the Press on 20 October. \u201cThat is deeply concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a Musk town hall in Pittsburgh on 20 October, at which the Tesla CEO praised Trump and gave a giant $1m check to a woman in a red Trump T-shirt,<\/a> audience members appeared unfazed by the criticism of the scheme, and said they admired Musk\u2019s success as a businessman, and what they saw as his championing of free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI fear if Trump does not win, we are going to have a single-party state that is going to be like California, but actually worse,\u201d Musk told the audience<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk has shared photographs of voters with $1m checks on X, the social media platform he owns. On Wednesday, the America Pac account announced that \u201cJoshua from North Carolina earned $1M after signing our petition in support of the Constitution\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump campaign is broadly reliant on outside groups for canvassing voters, meaning the super Pac founded by Musk \u2013 the world\u2019s richest man \u2013 plays an outsized role in what is expected to be a razor-thin election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n