Elon Musk’s lawyer admits $1 million giveaways to voters aren’t ‘random’

A representative of Elon Musk’s America PAC said the winners of its $1 million voter sweepstakes aren’t randomly selected. The people who are awarded the checks are chosen to be paid “spokespeople” for the pro-Trump PAC, lawyer Chris Gober testified in a Philadelphia court on Monday, as reported by the Associated Press.

Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his PAC over the contest, alleging it’s an illegal lottery that violates Pennsylvania state laws. “Though Musk says that a winner’s selection is ‘random,’ that appears false because multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at rallies in Pennsylvania,” the suit read. America PAC’s response confirms Krasner’s allegation that the winners of the contest aren’t selected at random — but this is presented as proof that the sweepstakes isn’t a lottery at all.

“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober — who CNBC identified as the former treasurer of the PAC — said during a Monday hearing, adding that the next two recipients will be from Arizona and Michigan. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

This contradicts Musk’s own claim that the awards were granted “randomly.” Musk announced the contest at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in late October. The event, one of several Musk held for Trump in the battleground state, was only open to people who had signed an America PAC petition saying they support the First and Second Amendments — a petition that critics quickly noted could only be signed by registered voters in Pennsylvania, a key swing state. America PAC eventually expanded it to six other swing states.

But the petition’s language doesn’t say anything about winners being selected randomly. Instead, it reads:

Each day through Nov. 5, one petition signer from either PA, GA, NV, AZ, MI, WI, or NC will earn $1,000,000.

And Grober testified that Musk’s use of the word randomly “is used interchangeably with the words ‘by chance.’” John Summers, the attorney representing Krasner’s office, described Grober’s comments as a “flat-out admission of liability,” CNBC reports.

Per the AP, more than one million people across the seven states have signed the petition thus far. Krasner, the Philadelphia DA, raised questions about how the PAC may continue to use those users’ data. “They were scammed for their information,” Krasner said during the Monday hearing. “It has almost unlimited use.”