A lawyer representing America PAC, a political action committee founded by Elon Musk, admitted that winners of the PAC's million-dollar-a-day sweepstakes aren't chosen at random from a list of survey respondents, but are actually selected based on whether or not they would be good representatives for the organization.
Attorney Chris Gober, of the Republican National Lawyers Association, stated Monday that winners of the lottery are chosen based on their stories and political experiences, then having to sign a contract with America PAC. Furthermore, the winners are pre-determined, reported AP News.
"The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance," Gober said. "We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow."
Gober also announced that Monday and Tuesday's winners of the sweepstakes would not be Pennsylvania residents, but would instead hail from Arizona and Michigan respectively. Previous winners have come from Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan.
Musk, who was not present at the hearing, also skipped an earlier hearing held on Thursday, Oct. 31, despite being ordered to attend it.
District Attorney Larry Krasner's team, who filed the lawsuit against Musk and America PAC, asked presiding Judge Angelo Foglietta to shut down the sweepstakes when he took the stand at Monday's hearing.
"This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery," said Krasner. "That's what it is. A grift."
Musk's PAC has been offering $1 million a day sweepstakes prizes to registered voters in battleground states, requiring them to have signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments in order to be eligible. Over 1 million people from eligible swing states have signed the America PAC petition in order to be entered into the contestant pool.
Krasner also questioned how the organization intended to use data collected from the survey. Some have criticized the sweepstakes initiative, stating that its only goal is to boost the campaign of former President Donald Trump, who Musk strongly supports, believing that the survey data will not be used after the election.
"They were scammed for their information," Krasner said. "It has almost unlimited use."
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