Wisconsin attorney general sues Elon Musk to block $1 million payment offers

Musk deleted the post about the Sunday giveaway from his social media platform, X, about 12 hours after he initially posted it late Thursday night. He issued the clarification about an hour later.

He had posted that he planned to give $1 million each to two voters at the event on Sunday in Green Bay, just two days before the election that will determine ideological control of the court in the battleground state.

“I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” Musk's now deleted post said. “This is super important.”

Kaul asked the court to order that Musk stop promoting the Sunday giveaway and not make any future payments to Wisconsin voters. Kaul referenced the changing plans for the Sunday event in arguing that any payment to voters was a violation of state law.

Even though the original post was deleted, there has been no announcement that the payments will not be made, Kaul argued in the lawsuit.

After a campaign stop in Beaver Dam, in south central Wisconsin, Schimel declined to say whether or not he thought Musk's proposal was illegal, or whether Kaul's move was appropriate.

“I don't know. I'm not his lawyer," Schimel said of Musk after the event in a strip mall parking lot.

As for Kaul's lawsuit, he said: “I don't care what he does. That's his business. I'm running for Wisconsin Supreme Court. I don't get involved in those legal battles. And I don't give legal advice.”

Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Musk's PAC that planned to host the event, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The Supreme Court race, with spending above $81 million, has shattered previous records for a U.S. judicial election, and has become a referendum on Musk and the first months of Trump’s administration.

Trump endorsed Brad Schimel, a fellow Republican, and hosted a telephone town hall with him on Thursday night.

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

Schimel, a Waukesha County judge, faces Dane County Judge Susan Crawford in Tuesday’s election. Crawford is backed by a wide range of Democrats, including the liberal justices who hold a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and former President Barack Obama. The retirement this year of a liberal justice puts majority control of the court in play.

Kaul's lawsuit was initially randomly assigned to Crawford but reassigned to another judge in neighboring Columbia County within minutes.

Musk’s PAC said Friday that it had awarded $1 million to Scott Ainsworth, a mechanical engineer from Green Bay, for signing its petition protesting against “activist” judges. In a video posted on X, Ainsworth encouraged people to sign the petition and “get out and vote early for Brad Schimel.”

“If everyone in the MAGA movement shows up and votes for Brad Schimel, we will win,” Ainsworth said in the video.

Ainsworth donated $350 to Schimel's campaign this year, campaign finance records show. He has also made dozens of Facebook posts since January supporting Schimel, including photos from campaign events, local organizations’ endorsements of Schimel and X posts from Trump urging Wisconsinites to vote for Schimel.

Musk promised $100 to any registered Wisconsin voter who signed the petition or forwarded it to someone who did.

That raised questions about whether the petition violated Wisconsin law, which makes it a felony to offer, give, lend, or promise to lend or give anything of value to induce a voter to cast a ballot or not vote.

Musk changing the terms of his offer may mitigate the circumstances, but it doesn’t necessarily resolve the legal issue, said Bryna Godar, staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

“The question is whether the offers are ‘in order to induce’ people to vote or go to the polls, and there can be arguments made on either side of that question,” she said in an email.

Any legal challenge to Musk’s payments could end up before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Schimel, a former attorney general, was asked about the petition on Thursday by WISN-TV.

“I, frankly, thought, ‘Should I sign that petition? I’m against activist judges, but I don’t think I should do that,’” Schimel said.

When asked about the $1 million award, Schimel said, “I don’t know what the criteria to get it was.”

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

“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and, on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” he said.

Musk’s political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the White House election last year, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

A judge in Pennsylvania said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through Election Day.

Musk and groups he funds have already spent more than $20 million in an effort to elect Schimel, while billionaire George Soros has given $2 million to bolster Crawford, and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has donated $1.5 million.

The race comes as the Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

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