The Justice Department has reportedly sent a warning to Elon Musk’s super PAC that its brazen $1 million daily lottery aimed at getting people in swing states to register to vote may run afoul of federal law.
The warning came by way of a letter this week to Musk’s America PAC from the Justice Department’s public integrity division, according to 24Sight, CNN and The New York Times.
It is unclear whether Musk or his political action committee have responded to the letter. A request for comment was not immediately returned to HuffPost.
The Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.
The 24Sight newsletter reported that the letter did not threaten legal action but warned Musk of the penalties for breaking election laws. In this instance, a violation poses a penalty of up to five years in prison.
The billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX has thrown his weight behind former President Donald Trump, and Musk has already vowed to give Trump’s Republican presidential campaign $70 million.
But the $1 million daily giveaway is a new gambit that Musk unveiled on Oct. 19 at a rally in Pennsylvania in support of Trump. America PAC says on its website that it has so far handed out $4 million.
A man from Holly Springs, North Carolina, received $1 million on Tuesday. Other recipients included a woman in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, a woman in Pittsburgh and a man in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
To be entered into the sweepstakes, people must agree to be a “spokesperson for America PAC” by signing a petition that declares the “First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.” They must also be registered voters to be eligible.
Online, the petition states in smaller print that it is also offering people from Pennsylvania $100 to sign through Oct. 28.
“Refer a petition signer and get $100,” the petition said online as of Wednesday.
Federal law prohibits compensating people to register to vote.
Musk has said the giveaways are random and that people do not have to be from any political party nor do they have to vote.
Since the giveaway began only days ago, questions have started to circulate in the media about whether the activity is legal.
Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor, told The Associated Press this week that if all Musk was doing was paying people to sign petitions, it might just be little else than a “waste of money” to fork over $1 million.
But the problem, Hasen said, is that Musk’s PAC set the condition that only registered voters could sign the petition, making it very likely that what he has done is illegal.
America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is notable that when Musk first announced the giveaway program, that notion of a “giveaway” or lottery was primarily how he discussed it. The tech mogul leaned into calling recipients of the giveaway “spokespeople” receiving compensation only a day after news of the lottery broke and the social media site he owns, X, was awash in criticism.