A Pennsylvania state judge on Monday allowed Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day donation to entice the state’s voters, after a surprising day of testimony in which the aide billionaire admitted that his political group had selected the winners of the competition.

A day before the hotly contested US presidential election between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, lawyers for Musk’s pro-Trump US PAC sought to persuade Judge Angelo Foglietta that the contest was not an “illegal lottery,” as the Philadelphia administration claimed. the attorney general alleged.

Lawyers for America PAC and its director, Chris Young, said the group distributed the funds based on who would be the best spokesperson for its pro-Trump agenda, despite the billionaire’s assertion that winners would be chosen at chance.

Tesla CEO Musk has already gifted $16 million to registered voters in swing states who qualified for the gift by signing his political petition. His group, America PAC, announced an Arizona winner on Monday and said the final winner, from Michigan, would be announced on Election Day on Tuesday.

America PAC launched the contest on October 19. It is open to registered voters in seven key battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – who sign a petition pledging support for free speech and gun rights on fire.

On October 28, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit to block the contest in Pennsylvania, alleging that the payments amounted to an illegal lottery with unclear rules. Krasner said in court that he would also seek financial sanctions.

Foglietta rejected Krasner’s offer in a brief written order and said he would outline his reasoning later.

Musk’s attorney, Andy Taylor, accused Krasner’s office of trying to stifle the rights of Pennsylvanians by preventing them from signing the petition.

“They are trying to prevent the citizens of Pennsylvania from signing a petition about free speech and the right to bear arms,” Taylor said during closing arguments.

Musk has become a vocal supporter of Trump this year and has promoted the former president on his social media platform and voter registration, according to federal information.

Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes will be critical in determining which candidate wins the 270 votes required to be declared the winner.

“ONE OF THE BIGGEST SCAMS”

In trying to persuade Foglietta that the gift was not an illegal lottery, Musk’s lawyers stated that the gift was not a prize but rather compensation for those chosen to serve as spokespeople for the pro-program. Trump from America PAC.

Young, the head of America PAC, said he selected the winners from a pool of candidates who appeared in the group’s videos and allowed him to use their images after reviewing their social media and meeting them outside of the event locations.

John Summers, a lawyer in Krasner’s office, said the admissions that the giveaway was not random made it not only an illegal lottery but also a fraud.

“If their story is true,” Summers said in his closing argument, “this is one of the greatest scams of the last 50 years.”

Summers showed the court a clip of Musk at a Trump rally on Oct. 19, saying the America PAC would randomly award $1 million to people who signed the petition. In the video, Musk said that “all we ask” is that the winners be America PAC spokespeople.

Young said he was surprised to hear Musk describe the gift as random at the gathering. He also acknowledged that the winners had signed nondisclosure agreements preventing them from speaking about the terms of the contracts.

The gift falls into a gray area of ​​election law, and legal experts are divided on whether Musk could violate federal laws prohibiting paying people to register to vote.

The U.S. Department of Justice warned America PAC that the giveaway could violate federal law, according to media reports, but federal prosecutors took no public action.

The Trump campaign relies heavily on outside groups to canvass voters, meaning the super PAC founded by Musk, the world’s richest man, is playing an outsized role in what is expected to be a razor-thin election.