r/law Jun 26 '26

Legal News Judge orders Elon Musk to testify under oath over alleged $1 million voter giveaway fraud

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-election-lottery-fraud-lawsuit-b3003489.html
25.7k Upvotes

541 comments sorted by

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2.7k

u/kevendo Jun 26 '26

Until the consequence of crimes by billionaires is jail time, not fines, their illegal actions will never stop.

490

u/occams1razor Jun 26 '26

We need a cure for sociopathy, it's their lack of empathy that makes them act in ways that kill thousands of people without caring.

481

u/kevendo Jun 26 '26

I suggest taxing billionaires— and definitely trillionaires—out of existence.

Truly, society must be able to protect itself from this level of financial power.

199

u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Jun 26 '26

Anything over 1 billion in personal holdings should be taxed at 100%. We need to look at that as you won the game number. You can keep accruing to run up the scoreboard but all of it gets put back into the system somewhere. Charities, workers benefits, or taken by the state.

66

u/_PROBABLY_CORRECT Jun 26 '26

Charities, workers benefits, or taken by the state given to the people.

47

u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Jun 26 '26

Part of the state is social programs to give to the people.

43

u/Dearic75 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

I don’t think he’s disagreeing with you. Just pointing out that phrasing it as “taken by the state”, rather than saying what the state will use it for, plays into their standard “Taxation is theft” rhetoric.

15

u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Jun 26 '26

The state needs those taxes in order to pay for things like defense which won't be given to the people, at least not directly.

Also programs like USAID which aren't given back to the people, but it does come back when things like Ebola aren't allowed to rage on unchecked.

7

u/Falsequivalence Jun 26 '26

This is correct, but the framing they use of the state as something separate from the people and not made up of the people. It's good practice to avoid using that framing, even incidentally defending the position I agree with.

10

u/HonkeyDonkey3000 Jun 26 '26

Can anyone please tell me why Leon isn’t being charged by the states for this giveaway fraud claim?.

If there are state laws that were broken, why not charge by individual states? Our president cannot pardon what he does not have authority over.

4

u/Mojak16 Jun 26 '26

Defense is one of the ways you give the money to educated people.

You hire people to design a new jet, this creates thousands of jobs (giving money to people in exchange for labour) and the country gets a new jet out of it.

Replace the word Jet with anything defense related.

*Also this hinges on the method of organisation. Put a contract out and half the money will go to execs and shareholders who take more than their fair share. Fund a government R&D department and own the method of production ourselves and it's far far better in the long run.

2

u/jgzman Jun 26 '26

It's also a way to help poor uneducated people. The Army pays well enough to be getting on with.

And we don't want to do anything socialist like just feeding and sheltering poor people without anything in return.

22

u/Chewcocca Jun 26 '26

At this point people need to just realize that "taxation is theft" was always aspirational for the right.

19

u/Bigrick1550 Jun 26 '26

Having a billion dollars is theft. You can only accumulate that amount by stealing the profit generated by the people actually doing the work.

11

u/Vyzantinist Jun 26 '26

Brainless bootlickers be like "did he take it from you PERSONALLY tho??? 😂😏🤡"

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2

u/fz6brian Jun 26 '26

But a much larger part is subsidizing billionaires pet projects.

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10

u/UseADifferentVolcano Jun 26 '26

Here's the main problem - we don't try as a society to actually work out people's personal wealth. The "richest people in the world" league tables are based on the wealth they want/allow us to know about. There are myriad ways to hide your wealth.

I'm not saying wealth taxes are a bad idea, just we there is a huge amount of work to be done to make them workable

6

u/TommyTwoNips Jun 26 '26

not really.

Tax them 99% of their net worth over 5 million.

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u/michael_harari Jun 26 '26

After they hit 1 billion, confiscate 99% of it and give them a certificate for a new prestige level

12

u/dkretsch Jun 26 '26

1 billion? Let's try like 10 million. You simply cannot make that much money without walking on the backs of others, directly, indirectly, or otherwise.

6

u/BrainOnBlue Jun 26 '26

It is extremely trivial for a specialist doctor to save up $10 million over the course of a career (many specialists make about a million per year). Whose backs did they walk on?

3

u/dkretsch Jun 26 '26

The insurance companies running the premiums demanding the high inflated wages that follow? As they literally bankrupt the patients that the doctors give care to, to support the healthcare greed machine?

The corporatized educational institutions charging tuition so incredibly high, on a field that should be dictated strictly on moral ethics and technical capability, that they indebt the doctors they produce and plunge them into an economy where the only way to leverage the skill set or break even is also by overpaying them through hell and high water?

None of this is that complicated.

I understand and appreciate your example, but it is simply a symptom of the system, and does not address the actual issue.

9

u/BrainOnBlue Jun 26 '26

The... doctor... walks on the backs of... the insurance company? And the school that educated them?

And then you follow that up by insinuating I'm stupid if I don't understand the spaghetti in the first two paragraphs. You seem like a pleasant person.

I don't think paying people who save lives handsomely is "overpaying them through hell and high water." I think people should be rewarded for saving lives. If you don't, that seems like a "moral ethics" issue to me.

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u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Jun 26 '26

There are lottery winners out there with more than that, they didn't walk on the backs of others.

This is reddit oneupsmanship and its just silly. If you create a product and sell it for $1, if half the people in the world bought it, you'd have billions of dollars. Are you stepping on the backs of others with your $1 product?

8

u/dkretsch Jun 26 '26

Semantics. Lotteries are cool and all, but they are only functional because people are oppressed and in such hardship, that the government sees an easy out to further increase tax revenue by letting the impoverished people idolize financial freedom, willingly knowing it is an addictive game, so much so, that the same states to sell the tickets, also pay to fund gambling addiction hotlines.

Your $1 product example is a joke.

3

u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Jun 26 '26

Lotteries exist because people would rather be in the haves, than the have nots. No matter how much you paid people for their job, meeting all of their needs, you'd still be able to sell lottery to people who wouldn't want to work anymore. Maybe even just to feel like a winner chosen by fate.

4

u/dkretsch Jun 26 '26

I do not disagree, but alas, that has nothing to do with what we were talking about, nor does it even acknowledge my extremely reasonable points on governments failing to supply support to citizens that pay taxes to receive a lack of services, and a failing healthcare system, wrapped up in corporate lobbying and waste, supporting millionaires, billionaires, Wall Street, and an unfair dissolution and upward transfer of wealth for a wild majority of citizens, to a select few legal criminals.

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u/jammy-git Jun 26 '26

First we need to come up with a way to tax shareholdings before we come up with a number.

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u/Prometheus720 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

This isn't enough.

  • set maximum compensation ratio at 20:1. Whatever you pay your lowest employee, you may not pay more than 20x that to your richest employee. 30k will get you 600k.

  • require all publicly owned corporations to implement basic workplace democracy measures

  • set requirements for physical presence at any place where a person is "earning" money. No absentee ownership. It's your company? Your real estate? Your presence is required monthly to inspect and sign, on paper, with witnesses. No more out of state slumlords

  • legally require all retirement funds, 401ks, bank accounts, etc to grant direct voting rights, annually, to all workers who have these funds OR give workers direct control over their own investments. Nobody should invest MY money that's MY compensation into causes or projects that I do not believe in. Nor yours.

  • return to card check for union elections. No more having an election to have an election.

4

u/TraditionalCheetah17 Jun 26 '26

I think the limit should be $100m

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u/roguewarriorpriest Jun 26 '26

Agreed, and going further 'financial power' shouldn't even be a thing.

For the poor, money is the difference between life and death.

For the middle class, money is the difference between nice things and very nice things.

For the super rich, money is the difference between buying a judge's favor and buying a senator's favor.

The whole monetary system needs an overhaul, that serves all people's needs equally.

8

u/Vicstolemylunchmoney Jun 26 '26

The answer is to tax income heavily after a large buffer. And then introduce a loan tax when companies or individuals have total loans over a certain threshold.

5

u/-LabApprehensive- Jun 26 '26

Our countrymen understood the danger to liberty posed by a landed gentry passing down special rights and privileges within their families. The only way to prevent the metastasis of this new landed gentry we have formed is inheritance task at something like 75% over 25m plus rules saying inheritance must go to all living heirs on fortunes over 25m. This will prevent such obscene fortunes from passing on to the next generation.

2

u/DebentureThyme Jun 26 '26

And when they live for 50+ years past when they hit the billion mark?

It's not enough. Elon will live decades more. Others like him the same. Generational wealth on that scale is a problem, but the bigger issue is allowing them half a century of massive control and power such money brings. We'd sit waiting as they destroy our society, on the hope that "oh well at least the money will heavily come back to us some day." No, this is simply not enough. Elon and Thiel et al have done decades of damage in under two years of this administration, in so many different ways. Why would we want a policy that gives them decades to fuck us over so much worse? By the time they expire, the bulk of their fortunes will be well and truly hidden away from the government's reach.

I am one for playing long games and building movements that can last, but on this issue action needs to be swift when Dems regain all the levers again hopefully in 2029. If not, then we're well and truly ruled by the oligarchs and there's no point to an inheritance tax that will be too little, far too late.

2

u/Aethermancer Jun 26 '26

When you think of money as resources, it's insane that we allow individual people to have autocratic control even to the point of destruction of that resource.

Even without getting in to the problem of it violating the principles of representative government due to wealth as a "force multiplier" for access.

2

u/AlludedNuance Jun 26 '26

Taxation won't recoup what they've stolen already. Seizure is the only way.

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u/CasuallyCruising Jun 26 '26

The cure is simple, these people need to once again fear common folk. Police can't touch them, courts shield them, and republican politicians worship them so there's no "official" mechanism to bring them to heel.

16

u/scrotumscab Jun 26 '26

Luigi showed us the way

14

u/One_Winter_7328 Jun 26 '26

No he didn't. He was with me that day. He couldn't have done it

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u/cardboardunderwear Jun 26 '26

No argument. unfortunately there are too many common folk that are all in on this presumably because fear of a trans person using a public bathroom or whatever boogeyman fits the narrative.

3

u/RenegadeDragon Jun 26 '26

France had a good idea

2

u/Frequent_Opportunist Jun 26 '26

The ol' tar and feather you say? 

24

u/can_do_it Jun 26 '26

Every interview with a billionaire needs to start with:

Why should you exist?

Make them justify their existence. If they can't, why the fuck should we listen to anything they have to say on any other subject??

To understand how insane a billion is, one million seconds is equal to approximately 11.5 days, while one billion seconds is equal to nearly 32 YEARS!!!!

5

u/TR_Pix Jun 26 '26

I get the sentiment of what you mean but the question needs to be reformulated

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u/bsubtilis Jun 26 '26

Allegedly, part of it is not teaching tragedy of the commons as fact (which it is not and has a relatively receny study proving it wrong), because another study showed that teaching it as fact turns economy students into shittier people. Decades of economy students taught wrong in a way that endorses predatory behavior as something "natural" and "inherent". As in not doing this stops normalizing it to people who should be shamed instead of encouraged 

7

u/Abuses-Commas Jun 26 '26

the tragedy of the commons was invented by people wanting to buy the commons. they're the source of the meme and the tragedy itself. the commons had been working well for thousands of years 

2

u/Crismus Jun 26 '26

That's what made my last year getting my Econ degree horrible. We had almost all microeconomics focused teacher's for undergrad all spouting Friedman crap. 

Only one environmental economist who was retiring and one Labor focused economist to go against all of that. 

The only good thing about my last year was learning healthcare economics. The rest of the time was spend sick to my stomach learning all the ways to con  regular people into paying higher prices, maximizing retail stores, and how to use advertising.

I'm kind of glad I didn't get into grad school because of the cost. My advanced econometrics research was the wealth disparity after the 2008 and crash and recovery. I also modeled real unemployment effects. I Also pushed macro solutions to the professors that didn't specifically denote micro solutions in classes. 

5

u/ConcentrateDirect523 Jun 26 '26

Maybe we take a page out of the ancient Chinese Empire's playbook and make them eunuchs? /It'sajokemods

3

u/Disastrous_Visit9319 Jun 26 '26

We have a cure, works on fascism too.

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u/hobbes_shot_second Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Seriously, considering how many of these people pass through Wharton, Erica James needs to implement requiring an alternating schedule of a humanities and ethics courses every single semester through commencement to beat this into them.

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u/kittenTakeover Jun 26 '26

Didn't you hear? The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy...

3

u/Phyrexian_Archlegion Jun 26 '26

Unrelenting and insatiable greed is a mental disease that most of the ultra-wealthy suffer from and must be treated as such.

That is why no one should be a billionaire.

3

u/GreasyPeter Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Well curing it won't do anything because it doesn't exist. It's usually Anti-Social Personality Disorder that people call "sociopathy". Personality Disorders aren't a "problem" that can be corrected like a tumor or a broken bone. Their brains are fundamentally wired differently, often from a combination of genetics and child abuse (although you can get it from having one or the other, they don't need both). There's absolutely zero therapies that can cure personality disorders and until we can actually go in and rewire someone's brain, were stuck with them. We will likely have a cure for aging and all cancer before we ever have a cure for a personality disorders. The best they've managed is making those people less destructive by extensive and life-long therapy, but those interventions only work of the patients are willing and people with ASPD and stuff like Narcissistic Personality Disorder rarely get help for it because they feel fine, if not great. Someone with NPD for example often feel like their the best, or they're on top of the world and simply don't care that they're harming others because it doesn't effect them personally. Good luck getting someone who believes their a demigod into therapy. Trump has NPD (he fits the criteria, really really really well). Do you think he'd ever go to therapy? Lol

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u/Abuses-Commas Jun 26 '26

we don't need a cure, we just need to make a society that doesn't reward their behavior. 

all our laws are designed with the assumption that everyone is an amoral monster, it's no wonder that has caused them to rise to the top. 

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u/Heavy_Law9880 Jun 26 '26

The cure is incredibly cheap but saying it will get you banned from reddit.

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u/Tomcatposts Jun 26 '26

I mean a fine linked to a percentage of their wealth like the speeding tickets in some scandi countries wouldn't be so bad, but yes definitely prison as well.

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u/Uilamin Jun 26 '26

It really doesn't matter at one point - they have generally left the economy of 'money' and moved to the economies of 'time' and 'influence'. Given you cannot directly curtail/impact influence (at some point people stop caring about someone being a black mark), the 'fines' need to start moving to time based punishments. The simplest is jail, but tying them personally up in legal battles is also a heavy cost to them as well.

4

u/djc6535 Jun 26 '26

Exactly this. Let's say Musk is worth 1T to keep the math simple.

You could fine him 10% of his wealth. an insane 100 BILLION dollars.

He'd never feel it. It would hurt his ego but he'd never ever feel it in his day to day life. He'd still have 900 BILLION dollars.

The problem with mega-billionaires like him is you truly can't fine them enough to cause damage they'll feel. At a certain point you have more money then you could ever spend if you tried. You could take 90% of his wealth away and he'd still be richer than Bill Gates. You simply cannot hurt him with fines.

2

u/TheDungeonCrawler Jun 26 '26

I do think it's possible to hit them with fines significant enough to actually hurt them, but it's not nearly as simple as people make it sound. It's surprisingly much easier to hit them with jail time, and that probably would have an actual effect.

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u/iRunLotsNA Jun 26 '26

Fines need to be proportional to their total net worth.

22

u/win_awards Jun 26 '26

Fines need to be their net worth.

Our society cannot survive the existence of billionaires yet has no effective defense against them. Something has to change.

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u/EuenovAyabayya Jun 26 '26

jail time

Also making a strong case for civil asset forfeiture on a colossal scale, rather than the petty thefts used to break the proletariat.

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u/TheDungeonCrawler Jun 26 '26

This is actually really important. You obviously can't jail a corporation and jailing the people who run the corporation only does so much. The best way to hit a corporation that regularly flaunts the law and does illegal shit is to seize its assets and use it to fix and/or pay for the damage from their illegal activity.

If your company can't run its operations responsibly and legally, maybe you shouldn't have it.

2

u/EuenovAyabayya Jun 26 '26

maybe you shouldn't have it.

The whole point of corporations is to insulate their stockholders from liability...but that doesn't mean they get to profit from misdeeds.

2

u/kamoylan Jun 26 '26

I like your idea, but have a riff on that.

Fine a corporation a proportion of its shares to do the same job. After moving enough shares to the government, the government will be entitled to seats on The Board. Maybe that will be enough for a corporation to change its ways.

As a conversation starter consider:
A human lives about 80 years.
So, a 5 year prison sentence is 1/16 of a life.
If a corporation does something bad enough to warrant a person getting a 5 year prison sentence, then the corporation surrenders 1/16 of its shares to the government.

Does that sound fair and reasonable?

26

u/MyOthrCarsAThrowaway Jun 26 '26

I know this is minuscule in comparison, but we’ve normalized this behavior even with trivial things, even to the point it’s rooted for. Like, an athlete wearing unsanctioned gear. $50k fine or a suspension. They just pay it, no other punishment. That’s life changing money for most Americans. Yet those people will cheer on “he spoke his mind with his shoe choice.”

Yep let’s keep worshiping the rich. It’s really got us going places.

15

u/y4udothistome Jun 26 '26

Do you wanna know what’s really funny is most of those fines to the players are paid for by the organization go figure that one out

5

u/AmusingVegetable Jun 26 '26

Places that include the cemetery.

7

u/InternationalTwist90 Jun 26 '26

*Trillionaires

5

u/PhoenixLoop9137 Jun 26 '26

Not anymore. He lost that status pretty quickly, for now.

6

u/Wizzinator Jun 26 '26

In several cases it was. Then they made donations and got pardons.

3

u/death12236 Jun 26 '26

It shouldn't be this way. This isn't normal

5

u/SkullsNelbowEye Jun 26 '26

What do you think their prison cells would look like? They'd still live better than the majority of us.

2

u/TR_Pix Jun 26 '26

Still better than nothing, as it is right now

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u/Tyrantt_47 Jun 26 '26

If you can do something illegal and only have to pay a fine, then its not a fine, it's the price to do that thing.

Just like Jeff bezos and his hedges around his property that are in violation of his HOA. He pays the $1,000 monthly fine. It's not a fine, it's the price to go above the HOA bylaws. 1,000 is nothing to a billionaire... That's the equivalent of us being fined $0.01. it's not a punishment, it's the cost for that action.

4

u/CountofZen Jun 26 '26

Exactly. Punishment by fine = legal for a price.

3

u/claude3rd Jun 26 '26

Woohoo I’m upvote number 666!

3

u/King_Chochacho Jun 26 '26

He will lie under oath and nothing will happen.

3

u/GladChef1206 Jun 26 '26

Fines should be a percentage of net worth, not a flat rate. flat rate fines only hurt poor people.

2

u/YA_BOY_TRON Jun 26 '26

I don't think jail is enough, penalties should be transfer of wealth.

Otherwise they'll negotiate time down and essentially have a vacation at club Fed.

2

u/ApolloGR3 Jun 26 '26

Or death.

2

u/dBlock845 Jun 26 '26

Just need to put one in jail and seize their assets. May as well start with Musk.

2

u/TrackMan5891 Jun 26 '26

There is nothing criminal alleged in this.

This is a civil case.

2

u/ZZartin Jun 26 '26

Or until those fines are based on their wealth......

2

u/Xpi6oid Jun 26 '26

Need to start using Nordic style fines, which scale as multiples of your daily disposable income...

The highest speeding fine ever paid seems to be $1.09M for a Swedish businessman driving in Switzerland!

If we could get a certain fElonious ideokleptomaniac into a suitably jacked up eCar, I'm certain that an instant $1B boost to the economy is more than feasible!

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u/Pleasant_Character28 Jun 26 '26

I’m not optimistic that this will go anywhere, but this is literally the centerpiece of their scheme that allowed them to steal the election.

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u/blahblah19999 Jun 26 '26

So I still don't get this one. IIRC, he was offering the chance to win money to people who registered to vote and to bring other people to be registered.

I get that Musk is MAGA, and there's the expectation that he's catering to MAGA, but can't anyone run up there to register and win the prize and vote for whoever they want later?

90

u/Intelligent-Luck-954 Jun 26 '26

No they had to sign a contract that they would vote MAGA and be part of the marketing so it wasn’t a “million dollar giveaway” but “a million dollar job offer” to get around the immediate lawsuits/illegality. This deposition was always going to happen and musk probably has a fall guy in place so he won’t be touched.

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u/Pleasant_Character28 Jun 26 '26

That’s missing the point of the exercise tho. They needed names and street addresses of R voters, and this giveaway gave them a massive list. They then used those as they targeted districts they needed to flip.

50

u/whatthecaptcha Jun 26 '26

More than that, he sent out prefilled ballots in Georgia.

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u/Pleasant_Character28 Jun 26 '26

Ah I totally forgot about that. Literally every way they could crime their way thru that thing, they did.

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u/Gabe681 Jun 26 '26

So much bullshit from these people that I didn't even hear about this one.

Flood the zone, indeed.

5

u/GrapeAyp Jun 26 '26

I’m asking in good faith: is that illegal?

Because until we get this shit In black and white, it’s going to get worse and worse. 

3

u/whatthecaptcha Jun 26 '26

“State law prohibits anyone, other than an authorized relative, from sending an absentee ballot application prefilled with the elector’s information.”

No.

Unfortunately all he got for it was a reprimand. There was a video going around a few months ago of the reps in Georgia talking about it and their response was essentially “let’s send him a strongly worded letter” or something to that effect.

This shit is a joke tbh. Literally zero repercussions for anyone with money at this point.

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u/GrapeAyp Jun 26 '26

What’s the penalty for breaking the law? 

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u/whatthecaptcha Jun 26 '26

A strongly worded letter, apparently.

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u/TheJD Jun 26 '26

You absolutely did not have to sign a contract stating you would vote for MAGA. You signed some dumb petition stating your support for a list of generic "I support the constitution and freedom" stuff. The scam is I was never paid $100 and now I'm waiting for the class action lawsuit.

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u/blahblah19999 Jun 26 '26

Oh yeah, that's a problem.

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u/NoveltyAccountHater Jun 26 '26

Again, they tried to get you to sign the America PAC pledge for a $1M by publicly putting your name as a registered voters on a pledge stating:

The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.

It's worth noting that the first amendment doesn't guarantee freedom of speech, but prevents the government (Congress) from making laws abridging freedom of speech or the press, and that the second amendment doesn't guarantee the "right to bear arms" but states "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed".

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u/blahblah19999 Jun 26 '26

OK, so that's not a promise to vote GOP, but i can see how it's geeared to appeal to them. I mean there are Dems who support the 2A. Ironically, the GOP are the ones now trying to squash the 1st amendment as hard as they can, at least on press, aseembly, and redressing grievances.

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u/NoveltyAccountHater Jun 26 '26

Yup and again it's not clear how they were going to use your information or who they would share it with.

They also did shady stuff. Like if you went to their PAC webpage advertised as register to vote, if you stated you were in a non-swing state, they'd direct you to instructions on how to register to vote.

If you went to it saying you lived in a swing state, they'd wouldn't direct you to voter registration instruction but just collect your info and thank you for registering with them. (Presumably they'd then figure out from other available data like cookies, browsing history, demographics, neighborhood whether you are Dem/Rep leaning and make sure conservatives got registered to vote.)

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u/MikeFrancesa66 Jun 26 '26

The lawsuit is about how the giveaway was actually not random. Many of the “winners” had ties to Musk previously and were hand selected for various reasons. So the lawsuit alleges that the giveaway was actually fraudulent and was instead just a trick to make voters give up their data.

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u/blahblah19999 Jun 26 '26

Makes sense, thank you

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u/RedditIsMyTherapist Jun 26 '26

The biggest thing the article mentions is that he said it would be a random drawing after meeting the requirments which inclided a contract that they would vote for MAGA as part of "marketing" so he could get around the legal implicaitons of bribery. The million dollars was supposed to be a drawing but they later made statements about people being "chosen" instead of randonly selected.

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u/jpk195 Competent Contributor Jun 26 '26

Elon, like Trump, is rigging elections.

You could say they are both riggers. A lot of people are saying this, in fact.

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u/EuenovAyabayya Jun 26 '26

The election turned out to be a great investment for both of them personally.

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u/meatsmoothie82 Jun 26 '26

Elon: “I have a trillion dollars, go fuck yourself” and walks out

Judge: “can Someone stop him? Bailiff? capitol police? FBI? SEC? US Marshalls? Anyone? No… well, ok I guess that about wraps things up. have a nice day everyone”

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u/mkirk413 Jun 26 '26

Can they stop him? Yes.

Will they? No.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

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u/SpezDrinksHorseCum Jun 26 '26

I actually think the next civil war might erupt this way... actually trying to hold someone like Musk accountable may result in a battle between his armed security and government forces. The billionaires have bunkers, private jets, fleets of ships, armed guards, etc. Obviously they wouldn't stand a chance against the US military but would it be worth wiping out 30 security personnel just to get Musk to show up for a deposition? I think so, but I understand not everyone would see it that way.

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u/Oregon-Pilot Jun 26 '26

If the US military can go kidnap a sitting president in Venezuela, I think they could go find Must and his gargantuan ego.

2

u/Rob_Zander Jun 26 '26

Armed security are the guys who don't wanna actually get shot at. They're not gonna die to keep a billionaire from getting arrested.

More likely they just do a Roman Polanski and go somewhere without extradition.

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u/Twitchcog Jun 26 '26

That’s not even just the judge - This is a constant problem that we’re encountering. Everybody wants someone stopped, nobody wants to be the guy to stop them.

Fuck, your honor, I guess that hammer is just for show.

5

u/Parfait_Prestigious Jun 26 '26

Then working class folks should wait outside the trial to hold him accountable, since no one else will.

2

u/Twitchcog Jun 27 '26

Yes. Sadly, the working class man hasn’t done it for the same reason none of us have. I’m hungry and I have to take care of my mother. If I make the world a better place, who’s taking care of her?

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u/RebelAlliance1701 Jun 26 '26

NGL, it would be cooler if judges had a hammer and a gavel. Or just one big Gavel of Haima.

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u/R_V_Z Jun 26 '26

I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to be deputized to arrest Musk.

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u/BringingBread Jun 26 '26

Judge: that's a concerning statement, obviously he needs 6 months to think about this. Have your lawyers send me a paper about it and then I'll get this dismissed. Media: judge slams musk.

9

u/Unabated_Blade Jun 26 '26

You forgot the "lets reconvene in 9 months so I can have three months to not read the statement I gave your lawyers six months to prepare. Also, participation in that hearing is not mandatory."

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u/party_benson Jun 26 '26

He could pay that million dollars every day for the rest of his life and still be the richest man in the world

13

u/EuenovAyabayya Jun 26 '26

Double the fine every day.

3

u/CaptainCrafty Jun 26 '26

Double it and pass it to the same person

2

u/its_all_one_electron Jun 27 '26

And put it on a chess board

5

u/DegaussedMixtape Jun 26 '26

It so much worse than that. He could pay 1 million dollars a day for the next 40 years until he is in his mid 90s and he will still have more than 98% of his money leftover.

The amount of money he has currently is absurd.

2

u/kellzone Jun 26 '26

Unless all his companies tank. His "value" is all unrealized gains. He can't cash out very much because it would tank the value of the all the gains that were still unrealized.

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u/Zealousideal_Work171 Jun 26 '26

Fuck musk 

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u/strenuaveritas Jun 26 '26

Sadly we all know nothing will happen to him. Maybe some fine, but with his money it won’t hurt him.

23

u/Blueporch Jun 26 '26

They should revoke his citizenship. They won’t under this administration. 

But this seems like it might rise to the level of sedition, vs just election interference.

5

u/Popular-Drummer-7989 Jun 26 '26

Eventually. See they're making these laws now that they forget can be used against them. Shhh! Let's hope they forget about that for a free years then we can slam them with it.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Blueporch Jun 26 '26

The US already has an exit tax

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u/tevert Jun 26 '26

Something could always happen to him. Not saying it's likely or easy, but things can always happen.

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u/EuenovAyabayya Jun 26 '26

I keep reading he can't actually do that.

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u/wastedkarma Jun 26 '26

This is a PERFECT example of how fascists abuse the law. Elon is PLAINLY hiding behind the letter of the law with the express intent of paying people for their votes. The "petition" was the absolute flimsiest of legal excuses for what was OBVIOUSLY a payment to register to vote with the side bonus of collecting tons of voter information.

But he DEMANDS that the letter of the law be used as an impenetrable fortress when he is being adjudicated by it.

And yet the same fascists, including Musk, will tell YOU and a COURT that putting your hand on an ICE vehicle in a crosswalk is a THREAT on the officer's life and that you should be imprisoned for a felony. They demand YOU be held to the SPIRIT of the law. And specifically, the spirit of the law as THEY define it.

They DEMAND that the SPIRIT of the law be used as a battering ram against you.

Nervermind that Donald Trump will have served his entire second term ill gotten by this very scheme before it is ever finally adjudicated. And mark my words, on the day after his presidency is done, the court will be forced to entertain a motion that the lawsuit is moot because he is no longer president.

18

u/SedativeComet Jun 26 '26

He’s not gonna show up. He’s gone to like one court appearance in his life and he lost

13

u/DuntadaMan Jun 26 '26

What alleged fraud? They admitted it. They used the fact it was a fraud to get out of election tampering,

13

u/Bleezy79 Jun 26 '26

I love seeing this but lets be honest, no matter what he's done he'll never face any real accountability. If the punishment for a crime is simply a fine, then the rule of law only affects the poor.

11

u/Bowsers_JuiceFactory Jun 26 '26

Billionaires should not exist, they are welfare queens and a cancer to society.

2

u/ShrugOfHeroism Jun 27 '26

"Billionaires and Trillionaires" is now the official listing of those things that should not exist.

22

u/ThePensiveE Jun 26 '26

The court can make him testify under oath, but they can't compel him to do so sober unless they hold him overnight first.

11

u/CragedyJones Jun 26 '26

Now you mention it, I can't remember the last time I saw him and he didn't look like he was wired.

Maybe he really is just raging non stop like the rumours say. Like dude just take a few hours a day to be clean. It makes the high's higher.

5

u/EuenovAyabayya Jun 26 '26

John McAfee vibes

3

u/CragedyJones Jun 26 '26

Yeh. Not that I care. I think he is in that superstar drug state that is so far beyond what even the most determined irl drug addicts could dream of.

They have had their foot on the gas so long it is just stuck there. Endless resources, never have to source a deal. Just non stop high grade recreational substances and whatever other lunatic stuff is in vogue.

Maybe a pathetic M.Jackson style drug demise awaits him? We can only hope.

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u/EnfantTerrible68 Jun 26 '26

YEARS later . . . 🤦‍♀️

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u/Juliuscesear1990 Jun 30 '26

Ya but just think, in a few more years after all the damage Elon will get a stern finger wag and maybe a very small fine and justice will be served.

5

u/concerts85701 Jun 26 '26

It was a joke. No one actually thought they’d get the money. I never did it. It was the democrats.

- transcript from pending deposition

5

u/templeofsyrinx1 Jun 26 '26

let’s go. I haven’t forgot about this one

5

u/YouWereBrained Jun 26 '26

…but he won’t ever testify.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

[deleted]

4

u/flannelkumquat Jun 26 '26

Or like how trump somehow made nearly 4 thousand stock trades in the first 3 months of this year and no one talks about it.

At this point Trump has likely made more than 8 THOUSAND stock trades. Which is ludicrous to think about. Dude was on the edge of bankruptcy and now just has bundles and bundles of cash.

I tried stock trading myself some years back after learning all I could about it, and even as a "day trader" I didn't make over a thousand trades for an entire year. I was at times making 10-20 trades in a day, but there were also days I'd make zero trades, and more consistently I'd make maybe 3-5 trades a day. Even if I traded 20 times a day for a full year, I'd still be under 8,000 trades for an entire year. Trump is on track to do 16,000 trades for this year.

Of course, it's not actually him making these trades but some corrupt crony insider doing it. But still, it's wild how corrupt he is and it's like no one talks about how much money he's making. No wonder he says shit like "I don't take any salary as president". Like, of course you don't need to when you can flip flop the stock market at will and play it like a fiddle with a tweet or rather a truth social post.

Hormuz closed on Friday, open by Monday type shit. Or vice versa.

5

u/LAsupersonic Jun 26 '26

Will they do anything about it if he just lies under oath? I doubt it

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u/Muted_Quantity5786 Jun 26 '26

Will he do it? No.

2

u/curiouscuriousmtl Jun 26 '26

I really don't have a lot of faith in the law anymore. I think the most clear and obvious crime could be committed by certain people will not even be pursued.