Elon Musk should attend voter lottery listening to in Philadelphia

Elon Musk wears a black “Make America Great Again” cap while attending a campaign rally with Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

Elon Musk must attend an emergency court hearing in Philadelphia on Thursday morning to address a bid by the city’s top prosecutor to stop the Tesla CEO and his political action committee from continuing to award $1 million prizes to registered voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, attorneys for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner revealed in a court filing that his lawsuit against Musk, who is an ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and the America PAC had “triggered an avalanche of [social media] posts from Musk’s followers,” many of whom “made antisemitic attacks on Krasner.”

After Krasner filed his suit Monday, Musk in a post on his social media site X noted his agreement with a user’s claim that the district attorney knows the $1 million daily giveaway is “not illegal but wants a leftist judge to stop it before Election Day,” the lawyers for the DA wrote.

Krasner’s lawyers asked Judge Angelo Foglietta to order enhanced security for the hearing — originally scheduled for Friday morning — noting that one X account had posted the prosecutor’s home address and wrote, “Krasner loves visitors. Mask up and leave all cellphones at home.”

The attorneys also asked Foglietta for an order that “requires attendance of all of the parties, i.e., DA Krasner, a representative of America PAC and Mr. Musk.”

Hours after that filing, Foglietta moved up the hearing to be held in City Hall one a day, to Thursday morning.

“All parties must be present at the time of the hearing,” Foglietta wrote in the order in Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

Krasner’s lawsuit accuses Musk and America PAC of operating an illegal lottery and trying to influence voters in the presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Trump.

Musk and attorneys for him and his PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

In his lawsuit, Krasner’s lawyers wrote that the lottery was “deceptive,” to consumers since America PAC had not published clear lottery rules, or said how it would protect participants’ personal information.

The suit also argues that although “Musk says that a  winner’s selection is ‘random,’ that appears false because multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at Trump rallies in Pennsylvania.”

The posts on X containing information about Krasner’s address had been removed from the platform as of Wednesday afternoon.

Lora KolodnyWhen asked about the removal of the posts, without a suspension of the user’s account, X referred CNBC to its policy regarding sharing personal information on the platform.