Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy said Friday that billionaire Elon Musk is likely within legal bounds with his America PAC’s $1 million sweepstakes for registered voters in key swing states.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk on Monday over the giveaway, which allows one signatory of a petition to win $1 million daily. McCarthy, on “Fox & Friends,” said that because Musk is only mandating Americans to register to vote, not to cast ballots, the legal argument against him may be difficult to uphold.
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“They’re calling it a voting initiative but it’s really not. All he’s requiring is that people are registered to vote. So there’s no requirement to be in the contest that you vote. And, otherwise, it’s a promotion of constitutional liberties,” McCarthy said. “So I think Elon has the lawyers tied up in knots and the courts tied up in knots, but he really hasn’t done something that technically is a voting sort of contest. And, therefore, I think they don’t feel like they can put a glove on him right now.”
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Musk announced Oct. 20 that he would award $1 million each day to a random signatory, who lives in one of the top seven battleground states and signs a petition on the PAC’s website to pledge their support for free speech and gun rights. The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) notified America PAC shortly after that its sweepstakes may contravene federal regulations that prevent compensating people to register or vote in elections involving federal candidates, according to The Wall Street Journal.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Thursday that Larry Krasner’s suit against Musk was a “transparently political” effort “to pull Musk off the campaign and into a Philadelphia courtroom.”
“Musk’s argument and his company’s argument is look, it is not illegal to have a lottery to sign a petition in favor of the constitution, we only want registered voters to do that. If you are going to be competing in this lottery, you have to be participating in the political process,” Turley said. “The other side is saying it’s illegal to pay people to register or to vote.”
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Former President Donald Trump currently holds small leads over Vice President Kamala Harris in five of the top seven swing states, according to the RealClear Polling averages.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.