Elon Musk must attend an emergency court hearing in Philadelphia on Thursday morning to address a bid by the city’s top prosecutor to stop the Tesla CEO and his political action committee from continuing to award $1 million prizes to registered voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, a judge ordered Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, attorneys for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner revealed in a court filing that his lawsuit against Musk and the America PAC had “triggered an avalanche of [social media] posts from Musk’s followers,” many of whom “made antisemitic attacks on Krasner.”
The attorneys wrote that after Krasner filed his suit on Monday, Musk in a post on his social media site X noted his agreement with a user’s claim that the district attorney knows the $1 million daily giveaway is “not illegal but wants a leftist judge to stop it before Election Day.”
Krasner’s lawyers asked that the judge order enhanced security for the hearing, which was originally scheduled for Friday morning, noting that one X account had posted the prosecutor’s home address and wrote, “Krasner loves visitors. Mask up and leave all cellphones at home.”
The attorney asked the judge for an order that “requires attendance of all of the parties, i.e., DA Krasner, a representative of America PAC and Mr. Musk.”
Hours after that filing, the judge in the case moved up the hearing to Thursday morning.
“All parties must be present at the time of the hearing,” the judge said in the order Wednesday.
Krasner’s lawsuit accuses Musk and America PAC of operating an illegal lottery and trying to influence voters in the presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Musk and America PAC are backing Trump, the Republican nominee.
Musk and attorneys for him and his PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Lora Kolodny
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