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After news of DOJ warning, Elon Musk's super PAC didn鈥檛 announce 'daily' lottery winner on Wednesday

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk listens as former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show on Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon) Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk listens as former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show on Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
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Elon Musk鈥檚 super PAC didn鈥檛 announce a winner for its 鈥渄aily鈥 US$1 million giveaway to registered swing state voters on Wednesday, the same day news broke that the Justice Department warned Musk's group that its sweepstakes might be illegal.

The pro-Trump group, America PAC, had publicly named a winner every day since Saturday, when Musk announced that he would award US$1 million every day to people who sign his petition. The petition is in support of the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the Constitution, but importantly, only registered voters in the battleground states can sign the petition and are therefore eligible for the money.

CNN reported Wednesday afternoon that the Justice Department had sent a warning letter to the super PAC, notifying it that the lottery might violate federal law against offering incentives such as cash or prizes to induce voter registration, people briefed on the matter told CNN.

The super PAC has announced its winners each day to fanfare, with flashy videos posted to social media and celebratory tweets from Musk. It鈥檚 unclear if the Justice Department letter is why the super PAC didn鈥檛 publicly name a winner on Wednesday.

CNN has reached out to the super PAC seeking comment.

The X owner and Tesla CEO has  multiple times on social media. In response to a post claiming Musk was 鈥減aying to register Republicans,鈥 Musk  on X that winners 鈥渃an be from any or no political party and you don鈥檛 even have to vote.鈥 He did not address the potential legal problem of only opening the lottery to registered voters.

After Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and former state attorney general, said Sunday that the giveaway was 鈥渄eeply concerning鈥 and deserved legal scrutiny, Musk  on his X platform that it was 鈥渃oncerning that he would say such a thing.鈥

On Sunday, the second day of the sweepstakes, the super PAC  around the giveaway, describing the money as payment for a job. In social media posts, the group said winners would be 鈥渟elected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC鈥 鈥 and subsequently posted pro-Trump testimonial videos featuring the winners.

However, several election law experts who spoke to CNN  that the fine print on Musk鈥檚 super PAC website explaining the official terms of entry did not change.

Musk, the richest man in the world, has thrown his support behind Trump and has given  to his pro-Trump super PAC. He has said he hopes the sweepstakes will boost registration among Trump voters.

He made his with Trump on the campaign trail earlier this month when he called on people to register to vote and cast Democrats as a threat to democracy at Trump鈥檚 rally returning to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of an assassination attempt in July.

Musk also last week in Pennsylvania, where he urged voters to support Trump and promoted several debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

CNN鈥檚 Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz and Daniel Strauss contributed to this report

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