Musk Settles Lawsuits Over $1 Million 2024 Election Giveaway

Elon Musk and his America PAC have agreed to settle two proposed class action lawsuits over the daily $1 million giveaway the group ran in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

The two sides told the judge overseeing the cases in federal court in Austin, Texas, on Thursday that settlements had been reached. The deals still need court approval. The filings did not include any settlement terms, and lawyers in the case either declined to comment or did not respond to questions, according to Reuters.

What the voters claimed

The plaintiffs are two Arizona residents, Joy Harvick and Jacqueline McAferty, according to Bloomberg Law, which listed the cases as Harvick v. Musk and McAferty v. Musk in the Western District of Texas. They said Musk and America PAC misled voters in seven swing states into signing a petition in support of the US Constitution by promising that $1 million would be paid each day to a randomly selected signer.

The women said they would not have signed the petition or handed over their personal information if they had known the winners were not picked at random. In separate litigation, Musk's own lawyers said the PAC chose registered voters from swing states who would be good public spokespeople for the committee, Bloomberg Law reported. The defendants denied the allegations in the Austin cases, Reuters reported.

Musk set up America PAC to back Donald Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign. The group handed out oversized checks in the final stretch of the race and drew legal challenges in more than one state over whether the giveaway broke election law.

Why the settlement matters

The deal lets Musk avoid giving sworn testimony in the cases. A federal judge ruled in June that Musk had to testify, and Bloomberg Law reported that the court had denied his objections to sitting for questioning by the plaintiffs' lawyers. Judge Robert Pittman must approve the settlements before they take effect.

That leaves the central dispute unresolved in public. Nobody has released a settlement figure, and the filings do not say whether America PAC admitted any wrongdoing. The defendants denied the claims throughout.

What happens next

The court in Austin will review the proposed settlements, including any payment terms the sides file under the approval process. Class action settlements in federal court usually require a judge to find the terms fair to the wider class before money can be paid out. Until that review ends, the two cases stay open on the docket.