Elon Musk may have violated Wisconsin’s bribery law by promising $1 million in payoffs to voters during the Supreme Court election | Today’s news
Tesla CEO Elon Musk likely violated Wisconsin law when he promised to hand out $1 million checks to voters in the 2025 state Supreme Court election, a bipartisan panel found.
The Wisconsin Election Commission last week referred two complaints to the Brown County district attorney’s office, which may decide to file criminal charges for violating the state’s election bribery law, The Associated Press reported.
Musk’s $1 million payday
The world’s richest man and founder of America PAC offered $1 million to voters to sign his super PAC’s petitions, a controversial practice he began during the 2024 US presidential election in which he supported Donald Trump.
Read also | Elon Musk’s power play fails in Wisconsin – and his response is: “I expected…”
Musk was also deeply involved in the effort to overturn majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where he supported Trump-backed Brad Schimel.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Elections
America PAC has spent at least $20 million on Schimel, including $1 million to each of three voters who signed a petition against “activist judges.” Spending during the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election is estimated to exceed $100 million, making it the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.
Despite the support of Trump and Musk, Schimel lost by 10 percentage points to Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford, and liberals retained control of the state Supreme Court. The Liberal majority grew to 5-2 after Democrat-backed candidate Chris Taylor’s victory this year.
Read also | Elon Musk has deleted a post announcing a $2 million donation to Wisconsin voters
After Schimel’s defeat, Musk announced that he would be spending much less on political campaigns.
What law did Musk break?
Last week, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, voted 5-1 in a closed session Thursday to refer the complaints against Musk to the district attorney.
The complaints, which are confidential under state law, were filed by voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay, which is in Brown County.
The Election Commission found that Musk may have violated the state’s Election Bribery Act, which makes it a crime to offer “anything of value” to a person to induce them to vote.
The motion approved by the Election Commission said it found probable cause that Musk violated Wisconsin law by posting on social media offering $1 million to people who voted in the Supreme Court election “to induce them to vote in that election.”
Prosecutors will decide whether Musk should be charged for the $1 million checks. Musk was handing out checks at a rally there just days before the election.
Tesla’s CEO is also facing another lawsuit over his cash payments to constituents. The lawsuit, filed by a government watchdog group, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, seeks to bar him from ever again bidding in the state.
That lawsuit is pending in Brown County. They allege that Musk and the two groups he funds violated prohibitions on bribery and unauthorized lotteries, and that his actions amounted to unlawful conspiracy and public nuisance.
In 2025, before the election, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, unsuccessfully sued to stop Musk from making the payments, accusing him of violating state law by offering people money to vote.
