The Biden-Harris administration threatened X owner Elon Musk with criminal prosecution for helping to drive voter turnout in the upcoming election by offering $1 million rewards to registered voters who sign a petition to support the U.S. Constitution.
Musk’s America PAC states that one winner is being chosen daily in one of the seven swing states if they sign the PAC’s petition pledging their support for the First and Second Amendments.
In order to be eligible for the prize, those who sign up have to prove that they are registered to vote in one of those states.
The New York Times reported that the letter from the Biden-Harris Department of Justice warned that the giveaway “might violate federal laws against paying voters.”
The report said that the letter is intended to threaten “a criminal investigation” if Musk does not stop, even though it’s not clear if the petition even violates the law.
The letter comes after a group of outcast anti-Trump Republicans sent a letter to the Biden-Harris DOJ this week demanding that they stop Musk’s efforts.
The move from the Biden-Harris administration comes after they have demonized Republican election integrity laws across the country by falsely claiming that they are Jim Crow‑era laws designed to suppress the vote.
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Earlier this month, the Biden-Harris administration filed a lawsuit to stop the state of Virginia from removing non-citizens from the voter rolls before the election, even though the effort was in compliance with a law that was signed by Democrats.
“I think it straddles the line, and it’s a little unclear whether it goes over the line or not,” John Fortier, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in election administration, told NBC News of the Musk giveaway.
Nate Persily, a professor at Stanford Law School, told the network that there really has never been a case like this before, thus “we’re in new legal territory here.”
“The relevant legal question is whether this is payment to induce people to register. If it is, then it violates the law,” he said. “If it’s payment to induce people to sign a petition, then it’s not a problem.”
Michael Morse, an assistant professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, told NBC News that he would be surprised if the Biden-Harris DOJ tried to stop Musk before the election because they should have more pressing matters before the election.
He said that he viewed this as an effort “to build up an email list for contacts, for campaigning, for mobilization.”
