​Sonia Sotomayor hits Elon Musk with 'quid pro quo' accusation

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that billionaire Elon Musk had a "quid pro quo" relationship with President Donald Trump after donating millions to get him re-elected.

During a Tuesday hearing on campaign finance laws, Sotomayor made the suggestion to an attorney for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who was arguing to further cut back campaign finance limitations.

"You mean to suggest that the fact that one major donor to the current president, the most major donor to the president, got a very lucrative job immediately upon election from the new administration, does not give the appearance of quid pro quo?" Sotomayor asked.

"Your Honor, I'm not 100% sure about the example that you're looking at," NRSC attorney Noel Francisco replied, "but if I am familiar, if I think I know what you're talking about, I have a hard time thinking that his salary that he drew from the federal government was an effective quid pro quo bribery, which may be why nobody has even remotely suggested that."

"Maybe not the salary, but certainly the lucrative government contracts might be," Sotomayor shot back.

Musk reportedly spent more than $290 million to get Trump re-elected. He is said to have benefited from more than $38 billion in government contracts and other funding.