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A authorities watchdog group in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Wednesday looking for to ban billionaire Elon Musk from ever once more providing money funds to voters within the battleground state like he did on this spring’s hotly contested Supreme Court docket race.
Musk handed out $1 million checks to 3 Wisconsin voters, together with two in particular person simply days earlier than the state’s April 1 Supreme Court docket election, in an effort to assist elect conservative candidate Brad Schimel. Two weeks earlier than the election, Musk’s political motion committee, America PAC, supplied $100 to voters who signed a petition in opposition to “activist judges,” or referred somebody to signal it.
It was all a part of greater than $20 million that Musk and teams he helps spent on the race in an effort to flip majority management of the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket. Greater than $100 million was spent by either side, making it the most costly court docket race in U.S. historical past.
Musk’s most popular candidate misplaced to Democratic-backed Susan Crawford by 10 share factors. Her victory cemented the 4-3 liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket till a minimum of 2028.
Since that election, Musk introduced he’ll spend much less on political campaigns after which feuded publicly with President Donald Trump after exiting his administration.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court docket by the Wisconsin Democracy Marketing campaign says that Musk’s actions create “the chance that Wisconsin elections will change into an open public sale, the place votes go to the popular candidates of the best bidders and the election consequence is set by which candidate has a patron keen and in a position to pay the best sum to Wisconsin voters.”
The lawsuit says that Musk and two teams he funds violated prohibitions on vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries and says his actions had been an illegal conspiracy and public nuisance. The lawsuit asks the court docket to order that Musk by no means supply related funds to voters once more.
A spokesperson for Musk’s America PAC didn’t instantly return a textual content message Wednesday looking for remark.
There may be one other Wisconsin Supreme Court docket election in April. In November 2026, management of the Legislature and the governor’s workplace, in addition to the state’s eight congressional districts, can be determined.
The most recent lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Wisconsin Democracy Marketing campaign and a pair of voters by the liberal Wisconsin-based Regulation Ahead and the Washington-based Democracy Defenders Fund. It was filed in opposition to Musk, his group America PAC that introduced the petition and the Musk-funded group United States of America Inc. that made the funds.
The court docket that Crawford joins in August may finally hear the brand new lawsuit. Crawford would nearly actually be requested to recuse from the case, and if she did, the court docket could be left with a 3-3 cut up between conservative and liberal justices.
The present court docket, additionally managed 4-3 by liberals, declined to listen to the same unexpectedly filed lawsuit introduced by Wisconsin’s Democratic lawyer common looking for to dam Musk’s handing out of two $1 million checks to voters two days earlier than the election.
Two decrease courts rejected that lawsuit earlier than the Supreme Court docket declined to listen to it on procedural grounds.
Musk’s attorneys argued in that case that Musk was exercising his free speech rights with the giveaways and any try to limit that might violate each the Wisconsin and U.S. constitutions.
Musk’s political motion committee used an almost similar tactic earlier than the presidential election final 12 months, providing to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and 6 different battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second amendments. A decide in Pennsylvania mentioned prosecutors failed to point out the trouble was an unlawful lottery and allowed it to proceed by way of Election Day.
A federal lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania in April alleges that Musk and his political motion committee did not pay greater than $20,000 for getting individuals to signal that petition in 2024. America PAC on Monday filed a movement to dismiss. That case is pending.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative tales and Friday information roundup. This story is printed in partnership with The Related Press.
