Watch live: Elon Musk in court over $1m election giveaway
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Your support makes all the difference.Watch live as Elon Musk appears in court after Philadelphia's top prosecutor accused the world’s wealthiest person of illegally awarding $1 million to registered voters in the state.
The lawsuit marks the first legal action against the billionaire’s stunt, which offered people who signed his political action committee's (PAC) petition supporting First and Second Amendment rights the chance to win a random daily $1 million prize drawing.
The sweepstake is only open to registered voters in seven swing states, which drew warnings from election law experts and civil rights groups that the scheme could be seen as an illegal vote-buying operation, by creating a roundabout incentive to get people to register to vote.
Musk defended the contest, claiming that the petition is not designed to register people to vote and is merely a “petition in support of the Constitution of the United States, and in particular, freedom of speech and the right to bear arms."
The same day Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his PAC this week, Musk shared a post on X — the social media platform he owns — that claimed Krasner “knows it’s not illegal but wants a leftist judge to stop it before Election Day.”
That post “immediately triggered an avalanche of posts from Musk’s followers,” including “antisemitic attacks” against the district attorney and threats of violence, attorneys for Krasner’s office told a judge on Wednesday.
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