Elon Musk defends $1 million petition giveaway after federal warning
Elon Musk spoke in a virtual townhall event Friday and said that his petition giveaway wasn't meant to register voters.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk defended the legality of his super PAC’s $1 million daily giveaway to registered voters in swing states, days after the Justice Department sent a letter warning that the lottery-style contest might be unlawful.
Musk, during an online town hall event Friday on his social media app X, asserted that the purpose of the contest was not to induce people to register to vote. That’s a distinction that legal experts have said is important, because it’s illegal under federal law to pay people to register to vote.
“To be clear, this is not a petition to vote for or register for anyone. It’s really a petition in support of the Constitution of the United States, and in particular, freedom of speech and the right to bear arms,” he said.
Musk’s America PAC has been giving away $1 million a day since Saturday to a registered voter in one of seven battleground states who has signed an online petition pledging support to the First and Second Amendments. The PAC is also offering $100 to Pennsylvania registered voters who sign the petition. When Musk debuted the giveaways, he was conducting a series of townhalls where he repeatedly emphasized the importance of voter registration and his support of former President Donald Trump.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the world’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and he’s been using his wealth and notoriety to back Trump’s bid to return to the White House. Musk has given nearly $75 million to the super PAC while campaigning in-person in Pennsylvania for Trump and using his platform on X to do the same.
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