{"id":34355,"date":"2024-11-05T06:44:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34355"},"modified":"2024-11-05T18:46:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T00:46:08","slug":"elon-musks-1m-us-voter-giveaway-to-continue-pennsylvania-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34355","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s $1m US voter giveaway to continue, Pennsylvania judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The state\u2019s top Democratic legal official says the giveaway in states likely to decide the US election is a \u2018scam\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A $1m-a-day voter sweepstakes operated by a political group established by billionaire Elon Musk<\/u><\/a> can continue, a judge in the state of Pennsylvania has ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, the world\u2019s richest man<\/u><\/a> announced he would start the giveaway in seven battleground states<\/u><\/a> likely to decide the outcome of the United States 2024 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s giveaway has widely been seen by many as an unsubtle attempt to secure extra votes for Republican candidate Donald Trump<\/u><\/a>, who Musk has thrown his vocal and financial support behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk has given $75m to America PAC, a political action committee that has been funding various Republican candidates, including former President Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winners \u2018not chosen  by chance\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Tesla CEO has already gifted $16m to registered swing-state voters who qualified for the giveaway by signing his political petition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pennsylvania<\/u><\/a>\u2018s Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta\u2019s decision on Monday came after a surprising day of testimony in a state court in which Musk\u2019s aides acknowledged hand-picking the winners of the contest based on who would be the best spokespeople for his super PAC\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, the 53-year-old billionaire had claimed the winners would be chosen at random.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, called the process a scam \u201cdesigned to actually influence a national election\u201d and asked that it be shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it was, the judge ruled in favour of Musk and his America PAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s lawyer, Chris Gober, said the final two recipients before the presidential election would be announced in Arizona on Monday and Michigan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,\u201d said Gober.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018They were scammed\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients were vetted ahead of time, to \u201cfeel out their personality, [and] make sure they were someone whose values aligned\u201d with the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s lawyers, defending the effort, called it \u201ccore political speech\u201d given that participants were asked to sign a petition endorsing the US Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 1 million people from the seven battleground states \u2013 Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan \u2013 have registered for the sweepstakes by signing a petition saying they support the right to free speech and to bear arms, the first two amendments to the US Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District Attorney Krasner has questioned how the PAC might use their data, which it will have on hand well past the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were scammed for their information,\u201d Krasner said. \u201cIt has almost unlimited use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

aljazeera<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state\u2019s top Democratic legal official says the giveaway in states likely to decide the US election is a \u2018scam\u2019. A $1m-a-day voter sweepstakes operated by a political group established by billionaire Elon Musk can continue, a judge in the state of Pennsylvania has ruled. Last month, the world\u2019s richest man announced he would start the giveaway in seven battleground […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9419,1700,1330,1356,2872],"class_list":["post-34355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-giving","tag-judge","tag-musk","tag-pennsylvania","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34357,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34355\/revisions\/34357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}