Elon Musk ‘must’ face voter fraud lawsuit over $1 million-a-day giveaway scheme during US election, says judge
Elon Musk lawsuit: A federal judge on Wednesday ordered billionaire Elon Musk to face a lawsuit by voters, who have alleged that the world’s richest man deceived them into signing a petition to support the US Constitution in order to win his $1 million-a-day giveaway.
US District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas, has said that Jacqueline McAferty alleges that Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, improperly persuaded her to share personal identification details during the giveaway late in the 2024 election campaign, news agency Reuters reported.
America PAC was founded by Elon Musk in support of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s Presidential run.
A resident from Arizona, McAferty claimed that Musk and America PAC asked voters in seven battleground states to sign his petition over a promise that $1 million recipients would be selected randomly, similar to a lottery, while the voters had no real chance to collect.
She mentioned that voters who signed also had to give their names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
Musk responds
Musk pointed out various “red flags” as evidence that he did not operate an illegal lottery when requesting a dismissal.
He stated that these included claims that the $1 million recipients were “selected to earn” the money and were expected to become spokespeople for America PAC, which undermines the notion that the payment was a “prize,” the news agency reported.
However, the judge noted the other statements indicating that the defendants were “awarding” the $1 million, implying the money could be “won.”
“It is plausible that plaintiff justifiably relied on those statements to believe that defendants were objectively offering her the chance to enter a random lottery–even if that is not what they subjectively intended to do,” Pitman was quoted, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2014.
Musk also dismissed the idea that petition signers were harmed by providing their contact details. Pitman mentioned that an expert in political data brokerage could testify about the value of that information for voters in key battleground states. This lawsuit was filed on November 5, 2024, the Election Day.
The day before, a Philadelphia judge declined to stop Musk’s giveaway, stating that the city’s chief prosecutor did not prove it was an illegal lottery.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
