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2024 election updates: Trump hosts dinner at Mar-a-Lago on election night


2024 election updates: Trump hosts dinner at Mar-a-Lago on election night

Philadelphia Judge Angelo Foglietta said he plans to make a decision “shortly” after a nearly six-hour hearing on Elon Musk's America PAC's multi-million dollar raffle, as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner seeks a temporary restraining order to stop the competition.

During closing arguments, a lawyer for Krasner called Musk's giveaway “one of the biggest scams of the last 50 years” by duping more than a million swing-state voters into signing a petition in hopes of winning $1 million .

“There is nothing random about this process,” said attorney John Summers. “This was a profound, devastating and widespread deception.”

Summers argued that Musk tried to “sway the election” by encouraging hundreds of thousands of voters to sign a petition while selecting winners based on their “suitability” to serve as political action committee speakers. Summers argued that even if the lottery was not random, it was still illegal under Pennsylvania law.

“They essentially advertised this as a lottery. It’s not a defense that what we said isn’t true,” Summers said.

Andy Taylor, an attorney for Musk's America PAC, argued that the prosecution's case falls apart following today's revelation that the alleged lottery awarded pre-selected winners.

“It's an opportunity to earn something. It’s not a chance to win,” Taylor said, emphasizing the winners’ role as spokespersons for the PAC.

Taylor emphasized that the case was about a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments and argued that stopping the raffle would violate free speech.

“They will stifle the right of millions of Pennsylvanians to exercise constitutional free speech,” Taylor said.

Outside court, Krasner's attorney declined to comment on the details of the case, admitting only: “It's in the judge's hands.”

-Peter Charalambous of ABC News

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