The attorney general of Wisconsin continues Musk to block $ 1 million payment offers before the elections

Madison, Wisconsin (AP) – The Wisconsin Democratic Prosecutor asked a court on Friday to block the billionaire Elon Musk From the distribution of $ 1 million checks to voters this weekend, a few days before The very disputed Supreme Court race by the State had to be decided.

The Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the trial before the County Circuit Court to prevent Musk from making the payments, which he said that he would do on Wisconsin on Sunday. Musk initially declared in an article on his social media platform, X, that he planned to “put $ 2 million to a pair of voters who have personally Already poured their ballots in the race.

Musk then displayed a clarification, saying that money will go to people who will be “spokespersons” for an online petition against “militant” judges. After first saying that the event would only be opened to people who had voted in the Supreme Court race, he said that attendance would be limited to those who signed the petition.

Also Friday, the Musk’s political action committee identified the recipient of his first $ 1 million gift – a man from Green Bay who had donated to the Wisconsin Gop and the Conservative candidate for the courts, and who has a story to support President Donald Trump and his program.

Musk removed the post on the Sunday gift of his social media platform, X, about 12 hours after initially published it Thursday evening. He expressed clarification about an hour later.

He posted that he planned to give a million dollars each to two voters at the event on Sunday in Green Bay, just two days before the elections which will determine the ideological control of the Court in the state of the battlefield.

“I will also personally give two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation so that you take the time to vote,” said Musk’s Now Voileted Post. “It’s super important.”

Kaul asked the court to order that Musk ceases to promote the Sunday gift and make no future payment for Wisconsin voters. Kaul referred to the evolution of the plans of the Sunday event by arguing that any payment for voters was a violation of the law of the State.

Even if the original position has been deleted, there was no announcement that the payments will not be made, Kaul said in the trial.

After a campaign stop at Beaver Dam, in the South Center of Wisconsin, Schimel refused to say if he thought or not that Musk’s proposal was illegal or if Kaul’s decision was appropriate.

“I don’t know. I am not his lawyer,” said Schimel about Musk after the event in a parking lot of Strip Mall.

As for the Kaul trial, he said: “I don’t care what he does. This is his business. I present myself for the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. I do not get involved in these legal battles. And I do not give a legal advice.”

Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for the Musk PAC who planned to host the event, refused to comment on the trial.

The race for the Supreme Court, with expenses over $ 81 million, has beat previous files for an American judicial election and has become A referendum on Musk and the first months of the administration of Trump.

Trump approved Brad Schimel, a republican colleague, and organized a town hall with him on Thursday evening.

“This is a very important race,” said Trump in brief remarks by phone, in a call organized by the Schimel campaign. “I know you think it’s local, but this is not the case. It’s really much more than local. The whole country looks. “

Schimel, a county judge of Waukesha, faces the county judge of Dane Susan Crawford in the elections on Tuesday. Crawford is supported by a wide range of democrats, including liberal judges who hold a majority of 4-3 at the Supreme Court of Wisconsin and former President Barack Obama. The retirement of this year of liberal justice puts the majority control of the court at stake.

Kaul’s trial was initially randomly assigned to Crawford but reassured to another judge in the neighboring County of Columbia in a few minutes.

Musk’s PAC said on Friday that he had granted $ 1 million to Scott Ainsworth, a mechanical engineer from Green Bay, for signing his Protestant petition against “activist” judges. In a video published on X, Ainsworth encouraged people to sign the petition and “go out and vote early for Brad Schimel”.

“If everyone in the Maga movement presents itself and votes for Brad Schimel, we will win,” said Ainsworth in the video.

Ainsworth has donated $ 350 to the Schimel campaign this year, according to campaign financing files. He also made dozens of Facebook publications since January to support Schimel, including photos of Campaign Events, the mentions of local Schimel and X messages from Trump urging Wisconsinites to vote for Schimel.

Musk promised $ 100 to any recorded voter of Wisconsin who signed the petition or transmitted it to someone who did it.

This has raised questions about the question of whether the petition violated the law of the Wisconsin, which makes it a crime to offer, give, lend or promise to lend or give anything to encourage a voter to vote or not.

Musk modifying the terms of its offer can mitigate the circumstances, but that does not necessarily solve the legal issue, said Bryna Godar, lawyer for the staff of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the Faculty of Law of the University of Wisconsin.

“The question is whether the offers are” in order to encourage “people to vote or go to the polls, and there can be advanced arguments on each side of this issue,” she said in an email.

Any legal dispute of Musk’s payments could be found before the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Schimel, a former attorney general, was questioned about the petition Thursday by Wisn-TV.

“I got, frankly, I thought,” Should I sign this petition? I am against militant judges, but I don’t think I should do it “, said Schimel.

Asked about the price of a million dollars, Schimel said: “I don’t know what the criteria are to obtain.”

Crawford campaign spokesman Derrick Honeyman called Musk’s announced visit to Wisconsin a “last-minute desperate distraction”.

“Wisconsinites do not want a billionaire like Musk to tell them for those voting and, on Tuesday, voters should reject the lackey of Musk Brad Schimel,” he said.

Musk’s political action committee used An almost identical tactic Before the White House elections last year, Paying $ 1 million a day to Wisconsin voters and six other battlefield states that signed a petition supporting the first and second amendments.

A judge in Pennsylvania said the prosecutors Watch failure The effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue on election day.

Musk and the groups he has already spent more than $ 20 million to elect Schimel, while billionaire George Soros gave $ 2 million to strengthen Crawford, and Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker donated $ 1.5 million.

The race occurs while the Supreme Wisconsin Court should reign over abortion,, Congress redistribution,, union power And the voting rules that could affect the middle of 2026 and the 2028 presidential election.

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The writer Associated Press Christine Fernando in Chicago and Thomas Beaumont in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.