Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Monday to stop Elon Musk and his political action committee from awarding $1 million to registered voters in Pennsylvania, calling it an illegal lottery.
“America PAC and Musk must be stopped, immediately, before the upcoming Presidential Election on Nov. 5,” reads Krasner’s lawsuit, filed in the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. “That is because America PAC and Musk hatched their illegal lottery scheme to influence voters in that election.”
Krasner’s suit is the first legal challenge to Musk’s America PAC. The Justice Department warned Musk in a letter last week that the scheme may violate federal election laws. It’s illegal to compensate people to register to vote.
The PAC ceased its payouts for a day, then resumed them the day after, awarding two $1 million payments to voters in Michigan and Wisconsin.
“America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens – and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) – to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million,” the lawsuit continues. “That is a lottery. And it is indisputably an unlawful lottery.”
The DA also alleged that Musk’s claim that winners are selected at random “appears to be false,” noting that multiple Pennsylvania’s winners “are individuals who have shown up at Trump rallies.”
Last week, a group of former Republican officials urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the payments, warning that any delay essentially allows Musk to “act with impunity, with consequences if any coming only long after the damage is already done.”