Musk skips US court appearance in case focused on $1 million election giveaway

Tesla chief executive faces accusations of 'illegal lottery scheme' in US election

Elon Musk awards Kristine Fishell with a $1 million cheque during a town hall in Pennsylvania on October 20. AFP

Billionaire Elon Musk dodged a Philadelphia court hearing on Thursday, after asking to move a lawsuit seeking to halt his $1 million giveaways to registered US voters from state to federal court.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive had been ordered by a Pennsylvania state judge to attend the hearing, but his lawyers filed a motion late on Wednesday arguing that the case involved federal election issues and should be heard instead in a US District Court.

Philadelphia's chief prosecutor Larry Krasner, a Democrat, sued Mr Musk and his political action committee supportive of Republican Donald Trump, America PAC, on Monday, calling the $1 million giveaways to registered voters in election battleground states “an illegal lottery scheme”.

The move came days after the Justice Department warned Mr Musk and America PAC that the sweepstakes may breach federal law, which prohibits paying people to register to vote.

“Elon Musk didn't show,” John Summers, who is representing the Philadelphia district attorney's office in the case, told reporters after a brief hearing on Thursday morning.

“Elon Musk and his America PAC filed legal papers to have the case removed from this court to federal court and we will proceed to federal court.

“We will address the issues there and seek to have the matter remanded back to the state court. After all, this is a case that involves state law issues and I'll leave it at that.”

According to the America PAC website, 13 people, including four in Pennsylvania, have received the $1 million awards so far.

Mr Musk, who also owns X, formerly known as Twitter, has thrown his millions, time and considerable influence into backing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump since endorsing him in July.

The world's richest man has reportedly donated $118 million to Trump's political action committee, an organisation that collects funds for elections.

He also appeared on stage with Mr Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and hosted a series of town halls on his own in the eastern state seen as critical in the November election.

Mr Musk, who previously supported Barack Obama but has become increasingly conservative in recent years, peppers his 202 million followers on X daily with messages championing Mr Trump and denigrating his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.