Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump, gestures as he speaks about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 17, 2024.
Rachel Wisniewski | Reuters
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Friday sent back to state court a lawsuit against Elon Musk and his political action committee over their $1 million daily giveaway to voters in swing states.
The order returning the case to state court in Philadelphia came a day after the lawsuit by city District Attorney Larry Krasner was removed to federal court at the request of the Tesla CEO Musk and his America PAC.
Krasner’s lawsuit accuses Musk and the PAC of running an illegal lottery, and violating state law in doing so.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert, in his ruling Friday, brushed aside arguments by Musk’s lawyers that the lawsuit should be handled in federal court because the suit references the upcoming federal presidential election.
“But federal question jurisdiction does not turn on a plaintiff’s motivations in filing suit; it turns on whether the legal issues arising from the claims originate in federal or state law,” Pappert wrote.
The judge said Musk and the PAC had no identified “any question of federal law” that must be resolved in the DA’s favor “in order to prove either state-law claim.”
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
