Over the weekend, Tesla, X, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk began offering cash payments to voters who signed his pro-Donald Trump petition. "Morning Joe" hosts commented Monday that this is drawing questions about Musk's openness to breaking laws to get Trump elected.
All Joe Scarborough could do was laugh in shocked at the sheer amount Musk was offering — $1 million to people daily — that he was comfortable mentioning from a rally stage.
Rick Hasen, law professor at UCLA told MSNBC, "There's a very strong possibility that it's illegal."
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"There's no problem with having a lottery, at least from the point of view of election law, to pay people to sign a petition," said Hasen. "The problem is to sign the petition, you have to be, if you go to their website of his PAC, you have to be a registered voter in a swing state. So, this is essentially a lottery to either induce people to register to vote.
He specifically cited 52 USC-10307c as the law Musk could be breaking.
"You can't pay people to register to vote. The DOJ election crimes manual says that lotteries count as a kind of payment," Hasen cited. "So, it seems pretty open and shut to me. The fact that you're signing a petition is pretty irrelevant. It's like saying we'll have a lottery where people who wear glasses can participate. But you have to be a registered voter, and it's to pay people to register to vote."
The larger question is whether the Justice Department will be willing to pursue one of the richest oligarchs in the United States and whether it will do so in time for the election, he said.
See the discussion in the clip below or at the link here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
