—周四，宾夕法尼亚州一名检察官试图阻止埃隆·马斯克 （Elon Musk） 每天 100 万美元的选民抽奖活动，此前一名州法官让双方在世界首富跳过的听证会上辩论他们的不满。
法官安吉洛·福格列塔 （Angelo Foglietta） 同意，马斯克作为民主党地区检察官拉里·克拉斯纳 （Larry Krasner） 提起的诉讼中的指定被告，应该亲自出席听证会，但他拒绝立即制裁这位科技大亨。
马斯克的律师马修·哈弗斯蒂克 （Matthew Haverstick） 表示，他是一个大忙人，不能在听证会安排几个小时后简单地“出现”在法庭上。克拉斯纳的团队对 SpaceX 的创始人无法进入费城的观点提出了质疑，这促使法官迅速反驳。
“律师，他不会坐上火箭飞船降落在大楼上，”Foglietta 回答道。
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania prosecutor’s effort to shut down Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes moved to federal court on Thursday after a state judge let both sides debate their grievances in a hearing skipped by the world’s richest man.
Judge Angelo Foglietta agreed that Musk, as a named defendant in the lawsuit filed by Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner, should have attended the hearing in person, but he declined to immediately sanction the tech mogul.
Musk’s lawyer, Matthew Haverstick, said he’s a busy man who could not simply “materialize” in the courtroom hours after the hearing was scheduled. Krasner’s team challenged the notion that the founder of SpaceX could not make it Philadelphia, prompting a quick retort from the judge.
“Counsel, he’s not going to get in a rocket ship and land on the building,” Foglietta replied.
对注册选民的巨额赠品来自马斯克的政治组织，该组织旨在推动唐纳德·特朗普的总统竞选活动。
在他的律师辩称涉及联邦干预选举的指控后，Foglietta 搁置了该州的案件，等待联邦法院的裁决，该案被分配给美国地区法官 Gerald J. Pappert，他是共和党前宾夕法尼亚州总检察长，被巴拉克·奥巴马总统任命为联邦法官。那里没有立即安排听证会。
The huge giveaways to registered voters come from Musk’s political organization, which aims to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
After his lawyers argued that claims of federal election interference are involved, Foglietta put the state case on hold pending a decision in federal court, where the case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert, a Republican former Pennsylvania attorney general appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama. No hearings there were immediately scheduled.
然而，周四晚些时候，克拉斯纳提交了一份请愿书，要求将此案移回民主党领导的费城的州法院。这就是他周一提起诉讼的地方，指控马斯克和他的 PAC 在周二选举的紧张准备阶段经营了一场可疑的彩票。
克拉斯纳的律师指出，前十几名获胜者中有四名似乎来自宾夕法尼亚州，这也许是特朗普和副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）之间激烈竞选的关键奖品。
“这是拥有最多选举人票的州，这只是巧合吗？我不这么认为，“律师约翰·萨默斯（John Summers）在周四上午的听证会上争辩道。
However, late Thursday, Krasner filed a petition to move the case back to state court in Democrat-led Philadelphia. That’s where he had filed the his lawsuit Monday, which accused Musk and his PAC of running a dubious lottery in the tense run-up to Tuesday’s election.
Krasner’s lawyers noted that four of the first dozen winners appeared to be from Pennsylvania, perhaps the key prize in the tight presidential race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Is it just a coincidence that this is the state that has the largest electoral votes? I don’t think so,” lawyer John Summers argued at the hearing Thursday morning.
马斯克的美国 PAC 在他购买的社交媒体平台 X 上的帖子显示，自 10 月 19 日在宾夕法尼亚州哈里斯堡收到第一张支票以来，他已经送出了 13 张 100 万美元的支票。其他获奖者来自威斯康星州、内华达州、亚利桑那州、佐治亚州、北卡罗来纳州和密歇根州等战场州。
克拉斯纳的律师指出，马斯克和美国 PAC 本周每天都“厚颜无耻”地继续进行彩票，包括周四早上，尽管克拉斯纳在法律上要求将其关闭。抽奖活动将持续到选举日，向那些距离太近而无法打电话的州的人们开放，他们可以证明他们已经登记投票并签署支持宪法的请愿书。
“他们在黑暗中做事，”萨默斯告诉法官。“我们不知道他们遵守的规则。我们不知道他们是怎么随机挑选人的......这太令人愤慨了。
选举法专家质疑它是否违反了禁止某人付钱给他人投票的联邦法律。马斯克将这笔钱作为奖品以及作为该集团发言人的工作收入。
Posts by Musk’s America PAC on X, the social media platform he purchased, indicate he’s given away 13 checks of $1 million since the first one in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 19. Other winners came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan.
Krasner’s lawyers noted that Musk and the America PAC had “brazenly” continued the lottery every day this week, including Thursday morning, despite Krasner’s legal bid to shut it down. The sweepstakes is set to run through Election Day, open to people in too-close-to-call states who can show that they’re registered to vote and sign a petition supporting the Constitution.
“They’re doing things in the dark,” Summers told the judge. “We don’t know the rules being followed. We don’t know how they’re supposedly picking people at random … It’s an outrage.”
Election law experts have raised questions about whether it violates federal law barring someone from paying others to vote. Musk has cast the money as both a prize as well as earnings for work as a spokesperson for the group.
克拉斯纳表示，他仍然可以考虑刑事指控，因为他的任务是保护彩票和选举的完整性。在诉讼中，他说被告“无可争议地违反了”宾夕法尼亚州的彩票法。Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, as he’s tasked with protecting both lotteries and the integrity of elections. In the lawsuit, he said the defendants are “indisputably violating” Pennsylvania’s lottery laws.
特朗普和卡玛拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）都多次访问该州，为宾夕法尼亚州的19张选举人票而战。
马斯克还拥有特斯拉和 X，他在这次选举中全力以赴反对特朗普，称他认为文明处于危险之中。他正在通过他的超级政治行动委员会为特朗普进行大部分投票工作，该政治行动委员会可以筹集和花费无限量的资金。
他已向超级政治行动委员会承诺提供超过 7000 万美元，以帮助特朗普和其他共和党人在 11 月获胜。
Both Trump and Kamala Harris have made repeated visits to the state as they fight for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes.
Musk, who also owns Tesla and X, has gone all in on Trump this election, saying he thinks civilization is at stake. He is undertaking much of the get-out-the-vote effort for Trump through his super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money.
He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.
