Why Elon Musk's events in Pennsylvania likely violate federal law

Elon Musk wears a black "Make America Great Again" ball cap while attending a campaign rally with former President Donald Trump on October 05, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

This week, we learned that Elon Musk has donated tens of millions of dollars to help former President Donald Trump return to the White House. But he's not stopping there. Yesterday, Musk announced that he is holding "a series of talks throughout Pennsylvania" over the next few days.

There is just one problem: Musk's events are likely illegal. 

Musk, of course, has the right to hold an event explaining why he supports Trump. But these events, hosted by America PAC, a Super PAC founded by Musk, are not open to everyone. To attend, people must sign Musk's petition supporting free speech and the right to bear arms and have already voted in Pennsylvania. 

The problem is not the petition, but the requirement to vote to attend Musk's event. Federal law prohibits making or offering to make "an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate." Violators can be fined or face up to one year in prison. 

The legal problems with Musk's events were first noted by UCLA law professor Rick Hansen, a well-known expert in election law. Hansen explained that to violate the federal law that prohibits vote buying, "it is not necessary to offer that a person vote for or against a particular candidate." Any financial inducement to vote or not vote is enough. In this case, Musk is offering something valuable — an invite to hear him speak — in exchange for voting. "Just like one cannot give out free ice cream or car washes or concert tickets," Hansen writes, "one cannot give out free admission to hear a speech by a tech entrepreneur."

Earlier this month, Musk offered $47 to anyone who could recruit a registered voter in seven swing states, including Pennsylvania, to sign his petition. He said his goal was to get one million signers. The goal was to collect valuable contact information and demographic data of potential voters. While such tactics might be distasteful, they are not illegal. In that case, the $47 was not provided in exchange for voting. Rather, the payment was in exchange for recruiting a petition signer. Musk's group will likely use the data collected to convince that petition signer to vote, but a vote is not required for the payment. 

In the case of his talks in Pennsylvania, however, Musk crossed the legal line, only allowing people to access his talks if they have voted. While the law is clear, whether or not anyone will enforce it is far less certain. Musk is accustomed to doing what he wants and, with plenty of resources for skilled legal representation, cleaning up the mess later. 

Little else is known about the details of Musk's tour of Pennsylvania. According to the America PAC website, Musk was scheduled to hold an event in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Thursday. But, as of this writing, the times and locations of the events have not been released. 

Musk has secretly been spending millions on right-wing causes since 2022

While Musk has recently emerged as one of the most powerful forces for Trump in this election cycle, he has actually been giving huge sums to conservative causes since 2022, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. 

In 2022, Musk funded an ad blitz attacking Democrats on the economy, immigration, and transgender healthcare. The ads were run by a group called Citizens for Sanity, which got over $50 million of Musk’s money from a dark-money group called Building America’s Future (BAF).

Before Musk donated to BAF, the group’s operations were much smaller. In 2020, when it was founded, BAF only raised $300,000. In 2021, it raised $11 million. After Musk became a donor in 2022, its contributions nearly quintupled, reaching over $53 million.

Because BAF does not have to disclose its donors, it is not clear whether Musk has continued to fund it. But the group’s operations have remained extensive. In 2024, BAF has donated at least $22.8 million to right-wing political action committees.

Two PACs, Duty to America PAC and Future Coalition PAC, have been entirely funded by BAF, getting $16 million and $3 million, respectively.

Future Coalition PAC has used the cash to finance a controversial ad strategy. It is targeting Muslim and Arab-American voters in Michigan with anti-semitic ads about Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, and Harris’s stance on Israel, portraying her as a staunch Israel supporter. Simultaneously, the PAC is also taking out ads targeting Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, attacking Harris for being anti-Israel. 

Another PAC that BAF has funded this cycle is Stand for Us PAC, which received $3.8 million from BAF. Stand for Us PAC has spent exclusively on state and local races, including in Missouri and West Virginia.

Trump is set to appear at a community roundtable hosted by BAF in Oakland, Michigan on Friday.

Musk's $75 million Super PAC

Filings released Tuesday reveal that Musk has donated nearly $75 million to America PAC. Musk gave the PAC $14.95 million in July, $30 million in August, and $30 million in September. Musk was the PAC’s only disclosed donor from July to September. The donations came after Musk said in March that he would not be donating to a presidential campaign. 

From July to September, the PAC spent approximately $72 million, higher than “any other pro-Trump super PAC focused on turning out voters.” The PAC focuses on canvassing voters to increase early and mail-in voting in swing states, despite the fact that Musk routinely spreads misinformation about early voting to his 200 million followers on X, including that mail-in ballots are “insane” and “too risky.” Trump has reportedly “largely outsourced his 2024 campaign’s get-out-the-vote operation” to America PAC, partially made possible by a March Federal Election Commission (FEC) advisory opinion that allows canvassing operations to coordinate their message directly with a campaign. 

In August, America PAC was investigated in multiple states for improperly collecting voters' personal data. The PAC ran ads showing someone receiving a text reading, “Hey you need to vote,” with a video of the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania, CNBC reported. As Trump is seen taken off stage, the person in the ad texts back, “This is out of control! How do I start?” The person then receives a link to the America PAC website, with a text stating, “Register to vote! It’s easy!”

The PAC website advertised that it helped users register to vote, but not all users received assistance. Users in swing states, including Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and Wisconsin, were “directed to a highly detailed personal information form, [and] prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age.” But the website did not direct them to a voter registration page. Instead, after users submitted their information, the website directed to a page saying “thank you.” (Users from traditionally noncompetitive states like California were told to enter their information and then directed to a voter registration page or back to the sign-up page.) After CNBC's report, the PAC removed language promising to assist voters with registration. 

The North Carolina Board of Elections opened an investigation of the PAC. In a statement, a spokesman for the board said that “North Carolina law makes it a crime for someone to fail to submit a voter’s registration form if that person has told a voter that they would be submitting the voter’s registration form.” In letters to officials in Michigan and North Carolina, lawyers for America PAC argued that it was “deserving of a commendation, not an investigation.” A spokesperson for the Michigan Department of State told NBC News that they had “not found evidence of any violations of Michigan campaign finance law” but would “continue to monitor the situation.” A spokesperson for the North Carolina State Board of Elections said, “[T]he board’s staff conferred with America PAC on how to conduct voter registration consistent with state law.”