By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -Elon Musk was ordered on Wednesday by a federal judge to face a lawsuit by voters accusing the world’s richest person of defrauding them into signing a petition to support the U.S. Constitution for a chance to win his $1 million-a-day giveaway.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas said Jacqueline McAferty plausibly alleged in her proposed class action that Musk and his political action committee America PAC wrongly induced her to provide personal identifying information as part of the giveaway, late in the 2024 election campaign.
Lawyers for Musk and America PAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Musk founded America PAC to support Republican Donald Trump’s successful 2024 presidential run.
McAferty, an Arizona resident, said Musk and America PAC induced voters in seven battleground states to sign his petition by promising that $1 million recipients would be chosen randomly, as in a lottery, though the voters had no real chance to collect.
She said voters who signed were also required to provide names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.
In seeking a dismissal, Musk listed several “red flags” as proof he had not run an illegal lottery.
He said these included statements that the $1 million recipients were “selected to earn” the money and expected to become America PAC spokespeople, defeating the idea that the payment was a “prize.”
But the judge cited other statements suggesting the defendants were “awarding” the $1 million, and the money could be “won.”
“It is plausible that plaintiff justifiably relied on those statements to believe that defendants were objectively offering her the chance to enter a random lottery–even if that is not what they subjectively intended to do,” Pitman wrote.
The judge was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2014.
Musk had also rejected the suggestion that petition signers suffered harm by providing contact information. Pitman said an expert in political data brokerage could testify what that information was worth for voters in battleground states.
The lawsuit was filed on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024.
A day earlier, a Philadelphia judge refused to end Musk’s giveaway, saying that city’s top prosecutor failed to show it was an illegal lottery.
Musk is a Texas resident, and his electric car company Tesla is based in Austin.
The case is McAferty v Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, No. 24-01346.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Diane Craft)
