Judge rules against halting Elon Musk’s $1M-a-day giveaway in Pennsylvania

• A Philadelphia judge on Monday denied the city DA’s bid to halt Elon Musk’s $1M-a-day giveaway.
• The decision means Musk can continue the giveaway in Pennsylvania.
• A DA lawyer criticized the giveaway for “fraudulently” saying winners are chosen at random.

Elon Musk and his America PAC can continue a $1 million-a-day election giveaway in Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia judge ruled Monday.

The decision comes just one day before the giveaway ends. It followed a daylong hearing at which lawyers for the Philadelphia County District Attorney criticized Musk and his PAC, saying they deceived more than a million swing-staters who had trusted that winners would be chosen at random.

Instead, the $1 million windfalls are handed out based on PAC officials’ determination of “suitability,” an attorney for Musk said during the hearing.

“The emergency petition for injunctive relief is denied,” Judge Angelo Foglietta of Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas said in a brief written decision. The judge said he will issue a more detailed decision at a later time.

A lawyer for DA Larry Krasner criticized the PAC giveaway during closing arguments earlier Monday.

“It’s one of the biggest scams of the last 50 years,” the DA’s attorney, John S. Summers, said.

Summers was in court, in Philadelphia’s City Hall, on behalf of Krasner, who was seeking an immediate halt to Musk’s giveaway, which his lawsuit calls an unauthorized and deceptive lottery.

The daily sweepstakes, which began October 19 and is set to run through Election Day, is aimed at swing-state Republicans, and is open only to registered voters. It has been criticized by Democrats as a GOP cash-for-registration drive, and the Justice Department warned Musk in a letter sent last month that the giveaway could violate federal law.

At one point in Monday’s closing arguments, Summers called Musk and the America PAC “fraudulent shysters” for saying the windfall recipients would be randomly chosen.

“I will withdraw the word ‘shyster’ your honor,” Summers said when the judge called the descriptor “inappropriate.”

Lawyers for Musk said Monday that winners are not chosen at random, a point they made in the course of arguing that the million-dollar awards are not winnings from a lottery. Instead, Musk’s lawyers argued, recipients are being promised compensation after being chosen as spokespeople for the PAC.

“There is no prize,” Chris Gober, an attorney for Musk and the PAC, told the judge.

“We ask people to sign the petition and to ask others to sign the petition” in support of the First and Second Amendments, Gober said.

“There are payments for that,” Gober told the judge, referring to Musk’s promise that petition signers will get either $47 or $100 for each pledge that they sign and that they succeed in getting others to sign.

“We then determine which individuals would serve as a spokesperson for us,” Gober said, based on their “suitability” and “background.”

To date, 17 people — all of whom have signed NDAs — have been promised $1 million pay as “spokespersons” for the PAC, including four from Pennsylvania, according to testimony and exhibits from Monday. The $1 million is supposed to be paid on or before November 30, according to one contract entered into evidence.

The PAC did not immediately return a request for comment about whether the $1 million wins have been paid out to date.

But checks are either mailed or in the mail for 18,000 people in Philadelphia County who have been promised either $47 or $100 for signing the PAC petition, Gober said in court, including nearly 8,000 payments that “are supposed to be mailed tomorrow.”

PAC expenditures for the petition program don’t have to be publicly recorded until December 8, Gober added.

Krasner himself took the stand as a witness in his own lawsuit, questioned by Summers.

During more than an hour of testimony, Krasner said he owns a Tesla and doesn’t let being a Democrat influence his actions as a district attorney.

“I’m an old car mechanic. I like a Tesla,” he said to some laughter in the courtroom, adding he’s had the car since 2016.

“I have brought actions against Democrats in the past,” Krasner said. “I would have brought an action against Taylor Swift if she had done this.”

Musk did not attend the hearing, but Krasner’s legal team played videos of the Tesla and SpaceX founder announcing the giveaway and displayed X posts in which he praised it. Musk repeatedly refers to people being “awarded” the $1 million windfall randomly.

“I’ve got 37 years in the courts, and “it’s one of the most disingenuous things I’ve ever heard,” Krasner said from the witness stand of Musk’s characterization of the windfalls as spokesperson consultancy fees.

This story was updated throughout the hearing on Monday.