(PHILADELPHIA) — A Philadelphia judge is allowing Elon Musk’s America PAC to continue its million-dollar giveaway to registered swing state voters.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta denied Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s request for an injunction to stop the giveaway, which has handed out $17 million to voters across the swing states. According to defense attorneys, America PAC plans to announce their 18th and final prize winner on Tuesday in Michigan.
The decision followed a nearly six-hour hearing Monday, during which an attorney for Musk and America PAC revealed that the winners were preselected despite Musk saying publicly it was a “random” lottery.
A lawyer for Krasner called Musk’s giveaway “one of the great scams of the last 50 years” by deceiving more than a million swing state voters to sign a petition in the hopes of winning a million dollars.
“There is nothing random about that process,” the lawyer, John Summers, said. “This was a profound, devastating and widespread deception.”
Summers argued that Musk attempted to “influence the election” by encouraging hundreds of thousands of voters to sign a petition while preselecting the winners based on their “suitability” to serve as spokespeople for the political action committee. Summers argued that even if the lottery was not random, it’s still illegal under Pennsylvania law.
“They essentially advertised this as a lottery. It’s not a defense that what we said it was isn’t true,” Summers said.
Andy Taylor, a lawyer for Musk’s America PAC, argued that the DA’s case falls apart after today’s revelation that the alleged lottery awarded preselected winners.
“It’s an opportunity to earn. It’s not a chance to win,” Taylor said, emphasizing the winners’ roles as spokespeople for the PAC.
Taylor emphasized that the case centers on a petition in support of the First and Second amendments, arguing that shutting down the giveaway would infringe on free speech.
“You are going to smother in the crib the rights of millions of Pennsylvanians from exercising constitutional magnitude free speech,” Taylor said.
Speaking outside court, Krasner’s attorney declined to comment on the specifics of the case, simply acknowledging, “It’s in the hands of the judge.”
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