Musk Settles Lawsuits Over $1M Election Giveaway

Elon Musk founded America PAC to support Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. (File photo: Wikimedia Commons)

 Elon Musk and his America PAC have agreed to settle two proposed class-action lawsuits that accused the billionaire and his political operation of defrauding voters with a promised $1 million daily giveaway ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to court filings submitted Thursday. The filings, docketed in federal court in Austin, Texas, said the settlements are subject to court approval — but disclosed no financial or other terms.

The Settlement

Musk and America PAC told the judge overseeing the two related lawsuits that they had reached agreements to resolve the cases, Reuters reported Thursday. Lawyers involved in the case declined to comment or did not respond to requests for more information, and the filings themselves contained no details of what either side will pay or concede.

The cases were before Judge Robert Pittman of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas. Bloomberg Law reported that settlement notices were docketed in Austin on Thursday, and that Judge Pittman must approve the deals before they take effect.

The settlement lets Musk avoid a potentially embarrassing deposition: a federal judge ruled in June that Musk would have to sit for questioning by the voters' lawyers after denying his objections, according to Reuters and Bloomberg Law.

The Two Lawsuits

The two proposed class actions were filed by Arizona residents who said Musk and America PAC misled voters in seven swing states into signing his petition in support of the US Constitution by promising $1 million a day to randomly selected signatories, Reuters reported.

Bloomberg Law identified the plaintiffs as Joy Harvick and Jacqueline McAferty, with the cases captioned Harvick v. Musk and McAferty v. Musk. Both sides denied the underlying allegations: Musk and America PAC have denied any wrongdoing throughout the litigation.

The lawsuits accused the defendants of defrauding residents in closely contested states before the 2024 election by dangling what was presented as a lottery-style daily payout. The plaintiffs said they would never have signed the petition or handed over their personal information had they known the winners were not actually chosen at random.

An oversized $1 million check is presented to a winner of America PAC's 2024 petition sweepstakes at a campaign event attended by Musk. (File photo)

The $1 Million Promise

The giveaway began with a flourish in October 2024. Speaking at a town-hall event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 19, Musk announced that America PAC — the political action committee he founded to support Donald Trump's presidential campaign — would hand $1 million every day until Election Day to a registered voter in a swing state who signed an online petition backing the US Constitution, particularly free speech and the right to bear arms.

The eligible states were Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina — the seven battlegrounds that would decide the presidency. The PAC also offered smaller payments, $47 and later $100, for referrals and petition signings, further boosting its voter-contact operation.

Musk has defended the program publicly, saying in a post on X that those eligible for the prizes did not need to register as Republicans or vote in the November 5 election. By the time the sweepstakes wound down, 18 people had received the $1 million payout during the run-up to Election Day, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

A Warning From the Justice Department

The giveaway drew swift legal scrutiny almost as soon as it was announced. On October 23, 2024, the Justice Department's public integrity section — the unit that investigates potential election-law violations — sent a letter to America PAC warning that the sweepstakes might violate federal law, CNN and other outlets reported at the time. Federal law bars paying people to register to vote or to vote, and the department's own Election Crimes Manual treats "cash" or "lottery chances" intended to induce or reward voting-related acts as potential violations.

Two Democratic senators, Peter Welch of Vermont and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, followed up with a letter to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland urging an investigation and potential prosecution. "There is no place for vote buying in our democracy," the senators wrote. The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter, and the PAC continued handing out checks even after the warning letter arrived.

The "Not Random" Allegation

The heart of the class actions was the claim that the daily $1 million awards were not the random lottery they were presented as. According to Bloomberg Law's reporting on the litigation, the plaintiffs alleged that winners were not actually picked at random from the pool of petition signers.

In separate litigation, Musk's own lawyers revealed how the selection actually worked: the PAC chose registered voters from swing states who would make good public spokespeople for the committee, Bloomberg Law reported. Each day's winner was presented with an oversized check at campaign events, where Musk appeared alongside the recipients — a spectacle that generated enormous media coverage in the final weeks of the campaign.

America PAC and Musk have consistently denied that anything about the program was fraudulent, and the proposed settlements resolve the cases without any admission of liability.

The federal courthouse in Austin, Texas, where the two class-action lawsuits were filed. (File photo)

What This Means

The settlement closes one of the last significant legal chapters of the most aggressive — and controversial — voter-contact operation of the 2024 cycle. It also spares Musk the spectacle of a sworn deposition in which voters' lawyers could have probed the internal workings of America PAC, including how winners were chosen and who approved the payouts.

For the plaintiffs, the deals end a legal fight that began shortly after the election, without a public ruling on whether the sweepstakes crossed the line into illegal vote-buying. Because the settlements are proposed class actions, their terms will face scrutiny from the court before any money reaches the voters who say they were misled.

The outcome may also shape how far political committees can go in 2026 and beyond. The Justice Department's 2024 warning never became a prosecution, and Thursday's settlement does not establish any legal precedent about cash giveaways tied to petition signatures. Campaign lawyers will be watching closely for any published reasoning when Judge Pittman rules on the deals.

What Happens Next

Judge Pittman must give preliminary and final approval to the settlements, a process that typically includes notice to potential class members and a fairness hearing. The court has not yet scheduled those proceedings, and neither side has disclosed when approval might be sought.

With Election Day 2024 long past and the 2026 midterms less than three weeks away, the settlement arrives as Musk remains one of the biggest financial forces in American politics — he has disclosed hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to Republican groups this cycle. Whether the resolution of these cases changes his approach to voter outreach remains to be seen.