1 week Ago By Brendyn Lotz
Elon Musk’s America PAC has admitted a sweepstakes giving $1 million to a random petition signer isn’t random at all. Instead, the PAC has vetted winners ahead of time to make sure they align with its values. The revelation came as a result of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner suing to stop the giveaway which will continue.
Today, 5th November, marks the end of the US Elections 2024. Today will be the last day that US citizens can mark their ballots and vote for their candidate. The main race is between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump has the support of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
Over the course of the last month Musk has kicked his campaigning for Trump into overdrive . He has hosted rallies in swing states, he has ramped up posts about Trump to a block-worthy level and he has been courting support through the temptation of money. On that last point, Elon Musk has been hosting a lottery for a few weeks in which he offered folks the chance to win $1 million for simply signing a petition that states you support the right to free speech and to bear arms.
“So I have a surprise for you,” Musk told Americans at a rally in October. “Which is that we’re going to be awarding a million dollars to, randomly, to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election.” Only, the addition of “randomly” in that statement was pointless as it has now been revealed that the giveaway wasn’t random at all.
As reported by the Associated Press , the sweepstakes is actually just Musk’s political action committee (PAC), America PAC, paying spokespeople. This was revealed in a court hearing over a lawsuit launched by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. The DA accused the sweepstakes of being a scam designed to improperly influence the elections.
In a bid to shut it down Krasner sued and in doing so, got Elon Musk’s legal team to admit that actually, yeah, it’s not as random as Musk said. “The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Musk’s lawyer Chris Gober told the court. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.
” Additional testimony by the PAC’s director and treasurer Chris Young revealed that the “winners” were vetted ahead of time to make sure they aligned with the PAC’s values. Because of this admission, the “giveaway” can continue but we doubt this will stem any other legal challenges Musk or the PAC would face on the back of this revelation. Krasner meanwhile said that the one million Americans who signed the petition were scammed for their information which has “almost unlimited use”.
The DA says he will still consider pursuing criminal charges in this matter. Musk has signalled his support for Trump to be elected President in this election for some time now but his efforts really ramped up in the last few months. The billionaire set up the America PAC and ploughed $45 million a month into it as means to support the former president’s campaign to return to the White House.
While the polls close in the US on 5th October, we suspect that the elections will continue to attract attention until the new president is inaugurated in January next year..
