Tech billionaire and Republican megadonor Elon Musk on Thursday settled the two remaining lawsuits stemming from his US$1 million giveaways to voters during the 2024 election, according to court filings, bringing a two-year legal saga to an end. During the final stretch of the 2024 presidential race, Musk’s super PAC started a daily $1 million giveaway to registered voters in battleground states, while Musk was urging voters to support Donald Trump. After the election, voters in a handful of battleground states filed proposed class-action civil fraud lawsuits against Musk and his political group, America PAC, which both deny wrongdoing. The voters claimed Musk duped them into believing that they’d have a fair shot at the money if they signed up for the sweepstakes — which included turning over their private data to his political organization. Musk had publicly stated that the payouts would be given away “randomly” to registered voters. But his lawyers later conceded in court that winners were “not chosen by chance” but rather were picked based on whether they would be a strong spokesperson for the pro-Trump super PAC. In court filings from the two separate cases on Thursday, lawyers for Musk and for the voters said they had settled the litigation. The filings did not describe the terms of the settlements. CNN has requested comment from Musk spokesman and the lawyers representing the voters who sued him for comment. This year, Musk has reprised his role as a Republican megadonor — with at least $276 million in donations to GOP candidates for the midterm elections. He has also continued to be one of the leading promoters of election-related disinformation, as he was in 2024. The U.S. Justice Department warned Musk back in 2024 that the million-dollar giveaways could violate longstanding federal laws against vote-buying. The Philadelphia District Attorney filed a lawsuit to shut down the sweepstakes while it was still happening, but a state judge ruled on the eve of Election Day that it could proceed. The bipartisan Wisconsin Election Commission concluded earlier this year that Musk likely broke state law with similar cash giveaways in a 2025 state judicial race. But prosecutors declined to bring charges because, they said, the evidence was too weak to secure a bribery conviction. By Marshall Cohen, CNN
