Elon Musk told voters they had a random shot at $1 million. Now a judge has ordered him to answer for it under oath.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Hightower in Austin ordered Musk to sit for a deposition — sworn, on-the-record questioning by opposing lawyers — in a fraud lawsuit brought by two Arizona women who say his political action committee, America PAC, tricked them into handing over their personal information.
Musk made the promise at an October 2024 town hall in Pennsylvania. America PAC would give away $1 million every day until the election, he said, to a registered voter chosen "randomly" from those who signed a petition backing the First and Second Amendments.
It wasn't random. In a February deposition, America PAC's director, Christopher Young, admitted the winners were handpicked — chosen, he said, to be good "spokespeople" for the PAC.
"It was not the words I would have chosen," Young testified about Musk's use of the word "randomly."
On Wednesday, Hightower recommended that the fraud claim against Musk move forward to trial. Musk's lawyers had argued for dismissal.
The two plaintiffs, Jacqueline McAferty and Joy Harvick, say they would never have signed — and never would have handed over their names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses — had they known the drawing was rigged. The lawsuit seeks to cover every American who signed the petition. America PAC claimed over a million signatures. At even $47 per person — the low-end value the court cited for the data — that's potential exposure north of $47 million.
University of California Los Angeles, election law professor Rick Hasen was blunt when the scheme launched. Musk had "veered into clearly illegal vote buying," he wrote, because the giveaway was open only to registered voters in swing states.
Hightower also ordered Musk to turn over internal documents that his legal team had previously handed over, with key sections blacked out. No date has been set for his deposition