Tesla CEO Elon Musk holds a mobile phone as he arrives to attend a state banquet with U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
A bipartisan elections panel found that billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk "likely broke Wisconsin law" when he gave $1 million checks to voters in last year's Supreme Court election, according to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 to hand the case to prosecutors, who now have 40 days to decide whether the Tesla CEO faces criminal charges for election bribery.
Musk and his allies spent at least $20 million trying to install conservative judge Brad Schimel — only to watch him lose by 10 percentage points. The total spending for the election topped $100 million, the priciest judicial race America has ever seen.
Musk's attorneys have insisted the giveaways were pure free speech, a "grassroots" crusade against so-called "activist judges." But Wisconsin regulators were not buying it.
This wasn't the first time Musk had dropped his checkbook into politics. He ran a similar $1-million-a-day petition scheme during the 2024 presidential race.
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