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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Elon Musk and his America PAC Monday over $1 million giveaways to registered voters in battleground states who sign a petition. The lawsuit alleges the cash prize constitutes an “illegal lottery.”
The suit marks the first legal challenge to Musk’s sweepstakes, and comes after a Department of Justice warning that it may violate federal election law. However, in the new suit, the DA alleges that because the sweepstakes function as “a lottery,” and because Pennsylvania law states all lotteries operating there must be regulated by the state, it is illegal.
“To be clear, this is not a case about whether Defendants have violated state or federal laws prohibiting vote-buying,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, this case is very simple because America PAC and Musk are indisputably violating Pennsylvania’s statutory prohibitions against illegal lotteries and deceiving consumers.”
“America PAC and Musk must be stopped, immediately, before the upcoming Presidential Election on Nov. 5,” the lawsuit states, which was first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. “That is because America PAC and Musk hatched their illegal lottery scheme to influence voters in that election.”
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America PAC’s sweepstakes is open only to registered voters in key swing states, including Pennsylvania, who have signed an America PAC petition in support of free speech and gun rights. Legal experts are divided over whether it is illegal or if it could fall into a gray area of federal law in regards to “vote-buying.”
A group of former Republican officials has urged the Justice Department to investigate the cash prizes further, adding in a letter to the DOJ that they “are aware of nothing like this in modern political history,” The Washington Post reported.