The US Department of Justice The super-political motion committee founded by Elon Musk has warned that its $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes could violate federal election law, a source accustomed to the matter told NBC News on Wednesday.
The Justice Department's Public Integrity Division's letter to America PAC, the group largely funded by Musk to support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has been revealed as some Legal experts raised questions on the weird giveaway.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX announced Saturday that he would donate $1 million every day to a random registered voter in seven key swing states who signs his PAC's petition.
The eligible states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina — are the hardest battlegrounds in the competition between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Federal law prohibits paying people to vote or registering to vote. The petition itself doesn’t require signatories to declare their party affiliation, but does require them to offer personal information, including an email address and a cellphone number.
It was unclear when the DOJ sent the letter, which was reported earlier Wednesday CNN and the election blog 24Sight news. A Justice Department spokesperson declined CNBC's request for comment.
America PAC attorney Chris Gober, to whom the letter was reportedly addressed, didn’t immediately respond when contacted by CNBC.
Musk is the richest man on this planet and one in all the largest supporters of Trump's candidacy for the White House. America PAC spent greater than $100 million on the presidential election, with the overwhelming majority of that cash coming from Musk himself.
—
image credit : www.cnbc.com