The Justice Department warned Elon Musk that his $1 million giveaway could come with a prison sentenceā€”and it appears heā€™s actually paying attention.

After receiving a warning from the Justice Department, Elon Musk has stopped his $1 million giveaway to swing voters from his super PAC.

The tech CEO pledgedĀ SaturdayĀ to give away the hefty sum each day to one registered voter in a battleground state who signed America PACā€™s proā€“First and Second Amendment pledge. Every day since then, a winner has beenĀ announced: three Pennsylvania voters and one North Carolina voter.

However, the move immediately raised legal questions, as itā€™s a federal crime to pay someone to register to vote, punishable by a fine of $10,000, five years in prison, or both. Experts were divided, with Muskā€™s plan falling into a legalĀ gray areaĀ at best. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called the move ā€œdeeply concerning,ā€ and author Stephen King accused Musk of ā€œpaying to register Republicans.ā€

  • daikiki@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    I donā€™t want to rock the boat or anything, but does anybody else think that maybe we need just a tiny bit of judicial reform? It seems to me like thereā€™s an awful lot of people doing an awful lot of criming and our judicial system is apparently not that interested about stopping them until after the next election. And thereā€™s always a next election.

    So far.