A cohort of former Republican advisors, law enforcement officials, and legislators have signed a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland urging for an investigation into billionaire Elon Musk’s million-dollar payments to swing state voters, The Washington Post reports.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by WaPo, was sent from the desk of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Attorney General Michelle Henry and signed by Republican operatives whose careers date back to the Nixon and Reagan administrations, all the way through father and son Bush presidencies — and, yes, the Trump Administration.
Together, they call for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to examine whether payments made from Musk’s newly-founded America PAC violate federal voting laws — marking bipartisan opposition to Musk’s handouts, which are unprecedented in modern politics.
Beginning on Saturday, the billionaire started handing out one million dollars every day to a swing state voter who signed a petition in “support” of free speech and the right to bear arms.
But as the PAC’s offer only extends to registered voters, some legal experts have argued that Musk’s cash-heavy effort runs afoul of 52 U.S.C. § 10307(c), a federal voting law prohibiting anyone from either paying people to vote or paying people to simply register to vote. Under the statute, violators can be charged up to $10,000 in fines and could even face up to five years in prison.
“We are a group of attorneys and public officials, including those who have served in senior legal and law-enforcement roles under every Republican president from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump,” reads the document. “We write to you today to request that you review payments that are being made by the Elon Musk-founded America PAC to voters in Pennsylvania and other states that experts say raise serious questions under applicable law.”
“We are aware of nothing like this in modern political history,” the letter continues.
The group of conservatives who signed the letter includes Phillip Lacovara, who served as counsel to the special prosecutor who investigated the Watergate scandal; Phillip Potter, former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission; and John McKay, US attorney for the Western District of Washington under the George W. Bush Administration, among several others.
In addition to possible violations of 52 U.S.C. § 10307(c) — which, as the signees point, specifically includes lottery payments as a form of bribery — the authors call attention to variance among state laws, which “may also prohibit making or receiving payments for registration, whether as political bribery, election interference, or even as a public nuisance.” (Musk’s lottery is only open to residents of purple political swing states: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, and Michigan.)
Musk defended the checks in an X-formerly-Twitter post on Sunday, writing that “you can be from any or no political party and you don’t even have to vote” to receive the cash. Again, though, federal law forbids folks from paying — or accepting — cash payments for registration alone.
Letter signees were careful to make note of the political stickiness of the situation, writing that “law enforcement agencies are appropriately reluctant to take action shortly before elections that could affect how people vote.” But, they add, “serious questions arising under laws that directly regulate the voting process must be an exception.”
“Otherwise, individuals may act with impunity,” the letter continues, “with consequences if any coming only long after the damage is already done.”
In other words, if federal investigators wait until after the election to investigate the billionaire’s lottery, it might be too little, too late.
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