Summary
Elon Musk’s pro-Trump group, America PAC, selects $1 million giveaway winners based on their potential as spokespeople rather than randomly.
The Philadelphia district attorney Lawrence Krasner alleges this violates state consumer protection laws. “This was all political marketing masquerading as a lottery, albeit an illegal lottery,” Krasner said.
The U.S. Department of Justice has warned America PAC the giveaway could violate federal law, according to media reports, but federal prosecutors have not taken any public action.
The outcome of the lawsuit could impact the group’s ability to continue the contest, which has already awarded $16 million to registered voters in battleground states.
So he was buying votes specifically for Conservatives. That’s what I’m hearing.
I don’t think that makes things any better.
Well, it’s no longer an illegal lottery. So that’s good.
It’s just a rigged lottery. Slightly different thing. Also illegal, but for slightly different reasons. More unethical and fraudulent than before.
So it makes things better, and then makes things way worse.
Yeah, I’ve got absolutely no clue why they thought this would be a better defense
Somehow it worked, I don’t understand how though
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It’s interesting how this is only being reported now - the day before election day. When the early-voters already cast their ballots, and when the campaign no longer has to worry about keeping up the charade.
How many people signed onto this thing only because they thought they could be the lucky winner? It’s not like they can take it back now. Musk got exactly what he wanted - tons of signatures of support from registered voters in swing states, that can now be trotted out as some kind of “proof” for his preferred candidate when he loses.
On the one hand, some people do not know about, or even would believe, this news. Like die-hard MAGAts and/or people who don’t pay attention to current events.
But for the people who signed the petition for the hell of it, hear about this now, and who are capable of accepting bad news? Oh, they will be pissed. I wouldn’t put it past such a person to respond, “Well, fuck you, too” by not voting tomorrow, or by specifically voting for Harris.
I can’t expect the number of such people to be very high, but I do think that spite is a powerful force. Those who were on the fence before now have a personal reason to distrust Trump. And right in time to express it at the voting booth!
So….if they’re not random, does that violate the definition of lottery in PA state?
It’s whatever it needs to be at the time to keep Musk out of trouble.
It’s some sort of quantum lottery … or not
It’s a shovel! And it keeps on digging!
Grifting the rubes….grifting the rubes
Lolz. Sounds like somebody found a way to not get arrested.
Except that they stated multiple times, publicly, that the winners are picked randomly. So if they are not running a lottery then they have defrauded the participants.
They only did a few, and then found a way out. If you “reveal” some other reasoning behind the curtain, that is what is considered admissible, legally in the US.
Example:
DA: “You are accused of running a lottery to get people to vote for a specific candidate, which is illegal. Is that what happened?”
Musk: “Nope, we lied about it being random, and the winners were specifically chosen, which is not a violation of the law”
Except it is a violation of the law, just a different law. They defrauded the public by collecting something of material value (registrant information) under false pretenses. It’s textbook fraud
I’m not his lawyer, but it certainly sounds like he didn’t consult with them before doing the thing, and this obviously shifty change in stance is because it’s his lawyers who found a way out of trouble for their client. I’m sure they have you beat on this.
Lawyers making up insane defenses doesn’t mean they have the law on their side. They hail mary all the time.
You assume their goal is to get him off entirely and not to simply shift the crime to a lesser offense
It’s a legal team whose job it is to lessen the damage.
A “donation” or “gift” to a specific person isn’t a crime.
Running a fucking giveaway or lottery is though.
The gift isn’t the crime.
Telling people you’re holding a sweepstakes, collecting their information based on that statement, and then not holding the sweepstakes and instead giving the supposed prize to someone of your choice is the crime
It’s called fraud
Shocker
So the end game is to award nobodies, he thinks are going to be good potential spokespeople, to get out the message?
Hi I’m some random loser that was gifted a million dollars, listen to me AstroTurf!
Stellar
Imagine submitting your name to be in a lottery, that isn’t a lottery and actually results in a background check on you to see if you’re who they’re looking for.
Insane.
My wife knows a winner. They’re def random lol.
Someone gonna go to jail over this.
Why not just…hire spokespeople for a PAC at $500k/yr based on a public contest/audition about making right wing content? Same outcome, not at all illegal.
