Lawsuit Over $1 Million Giveaways On Hold After Musk's Legal Maneuver

Authored by Zachary Stieber and Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,

A lawsuit brought against Elon Musk over his randomly selected $1 million giveaways to registered voters has been placed on hold after lawyers for the billionaire removed the case to federal court.

Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta on Oct. 31 said he was placing the case on hold after Musk’s lawyers late Wednesday removed it to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Foglietta said during a hearing at Philadelphia’s City Hall that he was divested of jurisdiction because of the move. Musk celebrated the result with a post on his social media platform X that read “American Justice [For The Win].”

Removing cases filed in state courts to federal court is not uncommon, and is done at the prerogative of defendants under federal law. Requirements include removing the cases within 30 days of a complaint being filed.

Federal judges assigned the removed cases can decide whether to keep them in federal court or remand them back to state courts.

Foglietta said that he would be available later in the day if the case was remanded back to him.

Musk’s lawyers said in their removal notice that the case brought by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner involves significant federal issues and should thus be adjudicated by a U.S. judge.

“While the Complaint purports to raise only state-law claims relating to public nuisance and consumer protection, D.A. Krasner’s claims, as evident on the face of the Complaint, turn principally on the allegation that Defendants are somehow unlawfully interfering with a federal election,” the lawyers said.

Krasner sued Musk and his America PAC, or political action committee, recently over their daily $1 million giveaways to registered voters in Pennsylvania and other swing states. The scheme constitutes an illegal lottery, according to the complaint.

Krasner asked a state court to stop Musk and the America PAC from continuing the giveaways.

“Plaintiff is seeking emergency relief which, in and of itself, would require judicial intervention into the progress of an ongoing federal election,” Musk’s lawyers said in the new filing.

“This, however, a state court cannot do, as the issue of whether a federal political action committee like America PAC—which is focused on making independent expenditures to influence campaigns for federal office, not state or local offices—is exclusively governed by federal law and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Krasner was present in court but another attorney, John Summers, argued for the district attorney’s office. He maintained that the case was one about state law and could proceed in the claims court. Musk’s attempt to remove the case was cowardly and irresponsible, he said.

Musk, Summers suggested, was attempting to use procedural maneuvers to run out the clock and avoid accountability because the law and facts weren’t on his side. Summers also cast doubt on the idea that Musk’s giveaway was random, noting at least four have come from Pennsylvania.

If the giveaway were random, Summers said, it was definitely a lottery. The PAC, he alleged, was luring people in to give it their personal information. The type of personal information it sought, he added, was often bought and sold among tech companies.

A lawyer for Musk argued that his client wasn’t a proper defendant in the case and that the prosecution should focus on America PAC, instead of one of its donors. Summers responded in part by highlighting Musk’s role in announcing and promoting the contest.

“The 800-pound gorilla here is actually Elon Musk,” he told Foglietta.

Summers also decried as outrageous a post on X in which Musk suggested Foglietta was a leftist judge.

Musk did not appear at the hearing. Foglietta said that if the case ended up back in his court, Musk would be required to attend in the future.