X owner and world’s richest man Elon Musk is defying an unusual threatening letter from the Department of Justice, which warned his America PAC that its giveaway may violate federal law. Musk is giving away a million dollars a day to registered voters in battleground states who sign his petition to support the First and Second Amendments. Those who refer other voters in the battleground states of Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina to sign receive $47 per signature, and $100 in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
According to 24sightNews, which broke the news about the letter, the DOJ told Musk’s Super PAC that offering anything of value to influence voting was in violation of 52 U.S.C. 10307(c). That law makes it a federal crime to pay someone to register to vote or to vote, punishable by a fine of $10,000, five years in prison, or both. Musk continued to issue the $1 million checks after receiving the letter.
His America PAC said since the petition is not rewarding people for registering to vote or voting, but for merely signing a petition, it doesn’t violate the law. In response to a post from science fiction horror author Stephen King accusing Musk of “paying to register Republicans,” Musk posted on X, “You can be from any or no political party and you don’t even have to vote.”
According to election law attorney Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, the letter was unprecedented for the DOJ. “DOJ does not normally send out a letter telling someone they are possibly violating the law,” he told The Arizona Sun Times. “If they believe a violation has occurred, they open an investigation. They don’t warn the possible target about their investigation. The only reason to do this is to scare and deter Elon Musk and for public relations, political purposes. There is no violation of the law under the applicable statute and this is another sign of the weaponization of the DOJ as a political tool to be used against the administration’s political opponents.”
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