Lawsuit against Elon Musk’s $1M daily voter sweepstakes paused

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s lawsuit seeking to block Elon Musk from doling out $1 million every day to voters in the Keystone State was put on hold by a judge Thursday morning.

At the hearing held at City Hall, Judge Angelo Foglietta ruled to pause Philly DA Larry Krasner’s suit opposing Musk’s sweepstakes while the tech giant’s lawyers seek to get the case moved from state court to federal court.

Musk, the boss of Tesla and X, was not present for the hearing at City Hall, prompting lawyers in Krasner’s office to call for sanctions against the billionaire — whom they claim alongside his America PAC is “brazenly” pressing on with the lottery despite questions about its legality.

Since Oct. 19, Musk has been giving away the prize money each day to lucky voters in battleground states who sign his petition supporting the constitution — and specifically freedom of speech and the right to bear arms — as part of his bid to help vault former President Donald Trump back into the White House.

Musk — who’s committed $70 million to the political action committee to support the Trump and Republican cause — has said the sweepstakes will continue until Tuesday’s election.

Krasner Monday sued the SpaceX founder and America PAC, claiming the high-dollar enticement violates election, consumer and lottery laws. Krasner has also said potential criminal liability against Musk is still on the table.

Experts raised concerns that the giveaway violates rules barring people from paying others to vote or register to vote. But Musk has countered it’s simply price money and earnings the winners get for acting as spokespeople for his super PAC.

The DA’s office said at the Thursday hearing that Musk should face legal penalties for not showing up for Thursday morning’s hearing.

But Musk’s lawyer, Matthew Haverstick, said Musk shouldn’t be a defendant on the case in the first place, and that only the political action committee should be, since the payouts are funded by it.

Haverstick also said his client couldn’t make it to Pennsylvania with just 12 hours’ notice from when the hearing was put on the calendar.

Lawyers from the DA’s office balked at the excuse saying as the richest man in the world, Musk could have used a SpaceX spaceship to get to hearing on time.

Krasner’s lawyers also raised issues with the overall legality of the giveaway since he didn’t provide any rules or regulations for how the sweepstakes would play out.

The judge put any decisions in the case on hold until the issue of what court would oversee the case was hammered out.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been fiercely vying to win over Pennsylvania and have made multiple visits to the state which has 19 electoral votes up for grabs.

With Post wires