Elon Musk’s super PAC awarded two $1 million prizes to registered voters in Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday, after being warned by the Justice Department that the payments might be illegal.
Short of it is: Yeah, it is probably illegal. There is precedent along those lines. That said, whether the DOJ acts on it is anyone’s guess (with most guesses leaning towards “Are you fucking stupid?” because of worries about “election interference”).
THAT said: In some of that precedent, it was the recipients who were actually penalized. Which is probably the most likely outcome since musk might be a dipshit but he has a LOT of money and is in a weird “is on the board of a company we need” with the US government position. And going after just CAH would likely be too blatant even for the DOJ. But the people who got their 5 minutes of fame from getting a check in the mail…
Legal Eagle did a REALLY good video on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waPngGP7Awk (also on Nebula)
Short of it is: Yeah, it is probably illegal. There is precedent along those lines. That said, whether the DOJ acts on it is anyone’s guess (with most guesses leaning towards “Are you fucking stupid?” because of worries about “election interference”).
THAT said: In some of that precedent, it was the recipients who were actually penalized. Which is probably the most likely outcome since musk might be a dipshit but he has a LOT of money and is in a weird “is on the board of a company we need” with the US government position. And going after just CAH would likely be too blatant even for the DOJ. But the people who got their 5 minutes of fame from getting a check in the mail…