Judge Moves Up Hearing on Elon Musk’s $1 Million-a-Day Registered-Voter

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Elon Musk was sued for giving money to registered voters who signed his petition expressing support for the First and Second Amendments.

A judge in Philadelphia will hear arguments on Oct. 31 for and against Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day giveaway to registered voters, after granting a prosecutor’s motion to move the hearing up one day.

Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta also agreed to require all parties, including Musk, to attend the hearing.

“It is further ordered that all parties must be present at the time of the hearing,” Foglietta wrote.

The hearing had originally been scheduled to take place on Friday.

A representative for America PAC, Musk’s political action committee, did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. Musk’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had asked the judge to move the hearing due to security concerns and to require the attendance of Musk and a representative of America PAC in addition to Krasner.

Earlier in October, Musk began giving away $1 million to randomly selected registered voters who signed a petition from his political action committee expressing support for the U.S. Constitution’s First and Second Amendments.

“You don’t even have to vote. It’d be nice if you voted, but you don’t have to,” Musk said at an Oct. 26 event, where he announced the eighth winner of his super PAC’s $1 million prize in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Krasner filed suit on Oct. 28, arguing the scheme constituted an illegal lottery.

“America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens—and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election)—to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. That is a lottery,” the suit stated. “And it is indisputably an unlawful lottery. Under unambiguous Pennsylvania law, all lotteries in Pennsylvania must be regulated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth’s lottery law establishes a lottery to be operated and administered by the state.”

The suit asked the court to bar Musk and the political action committee from “engaging in any unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with their lottery.”

The America PAC on Oct. 29 awarded another $1 million, giving it to Joshua Mayo of North Carolina.

The committee has said that the people who receive the giveaways will serve as its spokespersons.

Reuters contributed to this report.