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Elon Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC is allowed to continue its $1 million-a-day giveaway after a ruling by a Pennsylvania judge.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta ruled in a one-page order in favor of the Tesla/SpaceX CEO’s America PAC on Monday despite efforts by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to shut down the contest he referred to as “a grift.”
Musk, who was not at Monday’s hearing, announced the giveaway at a rally for former President Donald Trump last month, saying, “We’re going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election.”
Participants in the swing states that included Pennsylvania were not being registered to vote but were directed to sign a petition in the contest of sorts which Krasner, who was previously boosted financially by billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, decried as an “illegal lottery” under state law.
(Video Credit: Fox29)
“They were scammed for their information,” Krasner contended at Monday’s nearly six-hour hearing. “It has almost unlimited use.”
“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” he testified. “That’s what it is. A grift.”
The Philadelphia district attorney’s request to block the daily giveaways was refused by the judge who did not offer an explanation for the decision as of yet.
Four registered voters in Pennsylvania have received $1 million checks from the super PAC which has reportedly handed out a total of 16 since Musk’s announcement. America PAC attorney Chris Gober noted that winners of the $1 million have not been random, but “were picked based on personal stories that they shared and that they all signed nondisclosure agreements,” Fox News reported.
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober told the court on Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”
“It’s an opportunity to earn. It’s not a chance to win,” America PAC lawyer Andy Taylor noted, arguing against shutting down the giveaway. “You are going to smother in the crib the rights of millions of Pennsylvanians from exercising constitutional magnitude free speech.”
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