The Justice Department sent a letter to Elon Musk’s America PAC warning that his $1 million sweepstakes-style giveaway to registered voters in battleground states may violate election law.
Mr. Musk is giving away $1 million a day to people who sign his political action committee’s petition supporting the First Amendment and Second Amendment.
America PAC’s petition stipulates that the money will be given to people chosen at random who sign on until Election Day and is “exclusively open to registered voters” in the seven swing states, according to the organization’s website.
In the letter from the head of the DOJ’s election crimes branch, first reported by 24Sight News, the agency warned that it was a crime to offer anything of value to register to vote or to vote. The letter did not threaten immediate legal action but included penalties for breaking voting laws in the U.S.
The Washington Times has reached out to the DOJ and America PAC for comment.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and owner of X has become an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump and has spent millions in support of his reelection bid since endorsing him this summer.
Mr. Musk announced the sweepstakes on Saturday at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he said the goal was to get “over a million, maybe 2 million voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendment.”
So far, the PAC has doled out four $1 million checks to winners in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The latest winner, North Carolina resident Andy Steinle, urged people in a testimonial video posted to the PAC’s X account to vote and support free speech “just like Elon [has] done.”
Mr. Musk’s giveaway raised alarm bells for its legality from the start.
Earlier this week, a group of former Republican officials called on the DOJ to investigate America PAC more broadly for payments of $47 to people who refer others to sign the petition and for $100 payments for only voters in Pennsylvania who sign the petition and an additional $100 for people they refer to sign on.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry and district attorneys in Pennsylvania, 11 “attorneys and public officials, including those who have served in senior legal and law-enforcement roles under every Republican president from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump,” requested that the federal and state agencies review the payments made by Mr. Musk’s PAC.
“We are aware of nothing like this in modern political history,” they wrote and spelled out that federal law imposes up to five years in prison for anyone who knowingly or willingly offers or accepts payments for registration to vote.
“We urge you to investigate whether America PAC’s payments are prohibited payments for voter registration,” they continued. “We recognize that they are framed as payments for signing a petition or for referring voters who sign. But many of the payments are restricted to registered voters, so anyone who wishes to get paid must first register.”
Their letter was first reported by The Washington Post.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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