Musk’s brazen move in $27m check furore
The Tesla and Space X billionaire failed to turn up at US court over allegations his multimillion election giveaway is breaking the law.
World
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Billionaire Elon Musk dodged a US court hearing on Thursday after asking to move a lawsuit seeking to halt his $1.5 million ($US1m) giveaways to registered US voters from state to federal court.
Mr Musk has been giving away checks for $1.5m each day since October 20 and plans to do so until polling day on November 5. That would total almost $27m given away to voters.
To stand a chance to get the cash, people had to be registered as a voter in a swing state and sign a petition “in favour of free speech and the right to bear arms”.
So far, 13 people have been given the money.
He is an ardent fan of Donald Trump. Democrats have accused Mr Musk of attempting to use the money to affect the election outcome.
Philadelphia’s chief prosecutor Larry Krasner, a Democrat, sued Mr Musk and his pro-Trump political action committee America PAC on Monday, calling thee giveaways to registered voters in election battleground states “an illegal lottery scheme”.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had been ordered by a Pennsylvania state judge to attend the hearing, but his lawyers filed a motion late on Wednesday, US time, arguing that the case involved federal election issues and should be heard instead in a US District Court.
However, that could mean the case is delayed until after the election.
The move came just days after the Justice Department warned Mr Musk and America PAC that the sweepstakes may violate federal law, which prohibits paying people to register to vote.
“Elon Musk didn’t show,” John Summers, who is representing the Philadelphia district attorney’s office in the case, told reporters after a brief hearing on Thursday morning.
“Elon Musk and his America PAC filed legal papers to have the case removed from this court to federal court and we will proceed to federal court,” Mr Summers said.
“We will address the issues there and seek to have the matter remanded back to the state court,” he said.
“After all, this is a case that involves state law issues and I’ll leave it at that.”.
According to the America PAC website, 13 people, including four in Pennsylvania, have received the $1 million awards so far.
Mr Musk, 53, who also owns X, formerly Twitter, has thrown his millions, time and considerable influence into backing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump since endorsing him in July.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, has reportedly donated $A180 million to his political action committee, an organisation which collects funds for elections.
He has also appeared on stage with Mr Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and hosted a series of town halls on his own in the eastern state seen as critical in the November election.
Mr Musk, who previously supported Barack Obama but has become increasingly conservative in recent years, peppers his 202 million followers on X daily with messages championing Mr Trump and denigrating his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Originally published as Musk’s brazen move in $27m check furore
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