The Justice Department sent a letter to tech billionaire and Trump campaign financier Elon Musk's America PAC on Wednesday, warning the owner of Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX that his $1 million "sweepstakes" randomly awarding $1m per day to a registered voter in swing states may violate federal law, a source with knowledge of the letter first confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.
The letter from the Election Crimes Branch of the DOJ's Public Integrity Section was recently sent to Musk's PAC. As of Wednesday, Musk had given away five $1 million checks.
Pressure has been mounting on state and federal authorities to investigate Musk’s lottery as a potential violation of election laws, including a ban on paying people to register to vote. On Monday, a group of ex-prosecutors and other former government officials sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation.
Musk has been campaigning for Donald Trump after pretending for years that his acquisition of Twitter wasn't politically motivated. Over the weekend, he announced the lottery-style giveaway, pledging to give away $1 million a day to a randomly selected swing-state resident who agrees to sign his PAC's petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.
To qualify, the person must be a registered voter -- leading experts to question whether the lottery could violate federal law that bars individuals from paying people to register to vote. Musk tweeted about the DOJ letter from his well-known alt account, "Doge Designer," obtusely asking "How can it be illegal to support the Constitution?"