{"id":1500431,"date":"2024-11-05T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1500431"},"modified":"2024-11-05T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T05:15:00","slug":"philly-judge-allows-musks-million-dollar-giveaway-to-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/philly-judge-allows-musks-million-dollar-giveaway-to-continue\/1500431\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly Judge Allows Musk’s Million-Dollar Giveaway To Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philly Judge Allows Musk’s Million-Dollar Giveaway To Continue<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A judge has denied Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner\u2019s request to block the $1 million giveaway program that billionaire Elon Musk and America PAC have been operating in the lead-up to the Nov. 5 election.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta issued the denial after a Nov. 4 hearing that was prompted by Krasner\u2019s civil lawsuit against Musk and America PAC.<\/p>\n

Krasner had accused Musk and America PAC of running an illegal lottery,<\/strong> which he said created a public nuisance, and violating a state consumer protection law.<\/p>\n

The program is set to conclude on Election Day, Nov. 5.<\/p>\n

The two sides had a brief hearing on Oct. 31, but Foglietta decided that he had been divested of jurisdiction after Musk filed to move the case to federal court. A federal judge sent<\/a> the case back to state court the following day, and Foglietta quickly responded by scheduling a hearing for Nov. 4.<\/p>\n

Foglietta said at the beginning of the hearing that because another day remained for the program, he didn\u2019t think the case was moot. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Musk was not in the courtroom, located within Philadelphia City Hall.<\/p>\n

America PAC attorney Chris Gober argued that despite Musk\u2019s description of the giveaway as random, the program was not random. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Gober said the program involved a contractual relationship in which participants served as spokespeople for the political action committee after being selected by a predetermined pool of people.<\/p>\n

So far, several individuals from Pennsylvania have won as part of the giveaway.<\/strong> Krasner\u2019s complaint cited a post<\/a> on X in which America PAC said more than 280,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania had signed the petition, which makes them eligible for the giveaway.<\/p>\n

Gober said that 6,661 of 18,000 payments\u2014of differing amounts\u2014owed to the residents of Philadelphia County had already been mailed. Around 3,000 were in process and slated to be mailed on Nov. 4 while the remaining\u2014around 7,000\u2014were slated to be mailed on Nov. 5.<\/p>\n

John Summers, an attorney representing Krasner\u2019s office, said the PAC is relatively opaque about details surrounding the giveaways and terms for the PAC\u2019s relationship with participants.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Summers\u00a0pointed to Musk\u2019s giveaway statement and argued that the fact that the giveaway wasn\u2019t actually random was not a valid defense. He also noted the testimony from America PAC Director Chris Young stating that he was surprised to hear Musk call the giveaway random.<\/p>\n

During his closing argument, Summers alleged the defendants\u2019 lack of transparency cheated thousands of Philadelphians.<\/p>\n

Andy Taylor, another attorney for the defense, basing his closing argument on the First Amendment, said Krasner was asking for a violation of core political speech by stopping people from signing the PAC\u2019s petition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taylor said that the giveaway was by design rather than by chance. The winner selection process, he said, should be likened to a job application rather than a lottery.<\/p>\n

Summers responded to Taylor in part by stating that the case had nothing to do with freedom of speech and should instead be viewed as fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s First Amendment rights are being smothered,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Summers said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 11\/04\/2024 – 19:15<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/philly-judge-allows-musks-million-dollar-giveaway-continue<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philly Judge Allows Musk’s Million-Dollar Giveaway To Continue Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times, A judge has denied Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1500432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1500431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1500432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}