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Winners of Elon Musk’s million-dollar competition aren’t chosen at random, lawyer says

Umito November 5, 2024

Elon Musk’s pro-Trump group is not randomly choosing winners of its $1 million-a-day giveaway to registered voters, but rather choosing people who would be good spokespeople for its agenda, it said Monday a lawyer for the billionaire.

Musk’s lawyer, Chris Gober, was trying to persuade a Pennsylvania judge that the giveaway was not an “illegal lottery,” as Philadelphia prosecutor Lawrence Krasner claimed in a lawsuit seeking to block the contest ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election.

“There is no prize to be won, but recipients must fulfill their contractual obligations to serve as spokespersons for the PAC,” Gober said during the hearing before Judge Angelo Foglietta.

Musk, right, takes the stage as he joins Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Hearing in battleground state comes just a day before Democratic VP Kamala Harris and former Republican president Donald Trump will compete in a very competitive race. Musk and his political action committee support Trump.

Since October 19 Tesla CEO Musk delivered a million dollar check each day to a randomly selected voter who signed his petition in support of free speech and gun rights. Musk became a vocal supporter of Trump this year and promoted the former president during his time in office. X social media platform.

Krasner, a Democrat, sued Musk and his political action committee in state court on Oct. 28 in an attempt to block the contest, which he called an illegal lottery that violates state protection laws consumers.

A lawyer in Krasner’s office, John Summers, called Gober’s comments a “complete admission of responsibility.”

“We just heard this guy say, my boss, my client, called this randomly,” Summers said. “We promised people they would participate in a random process, but this is a process where we pre-screen people.”