Billionaire Elon Musk will not face charges for promising Wisconsin voters $1 million checks during last year’s state Supreme Court election, a county prosecutor announced Tuesday.
In July, the Wisconsin Elections Commission decided Musk likely broke the law when he handed out $1 million checks to voters just days before Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election. But no jury would find Musk’s actions constituted election bribery, La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke said in an open letter explaining why the state declined to charge the tech billionaire.
Gruenke, a Democrat, described Musk’s initial post as a “poorly worded statement that was corrected and brought into compliance with the law.” Gruenke wrote the case would be “simple” without Musk’s famous name and the large amount of money involved.
The Tesla founder was heavily involved in an effort to flip control of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court last year. Musk and other groups spent at least $20 million supporting the Republican-backed candidate, Brad Schimel, who later lost to Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford by 10 percentage points.
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Musk handed out large $1 million checks to two voters when he spoke at a March 2025 event in the state. He declared the two voters as spokespeople for his political group.
Musk initially announced on X that he would speak in Wisconsin, with entrance limited to those who had voted in the state’s Supreme Court election — and added a financial incentive.
“I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” Musk said in the post.
Musk subsequently replaced that post with another, saying attendance to his speaking event was limited to people who signed a petition against activist judges, and that the checks would be given to two people who advocated for that petition.
The complaints later referred to Wisconsin’s elections panel focused on the social media posts Musk made days before the election, rather than the physical checks themselves.
The state’s election commission, which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, voted 5-1 in a closed session last month to refer the complaints to the Brown County district attorney’s office. Gruenke was later appointed as the special attorney for the case due to a conflict of interest.
Gruenke on Tuesday said he doesn’t think a jury would find Musk’s posts reflect an attempt at bribery.
“Either way the first post is perceived, in the end nobody was paid anything of value for voting or promising to vote,” the La Crosse district attorney wrote. “Even if I could convince a jury that the original post was still a bribe, I do not believe that a jury would convict Elon Musk of a crime after considering the intent, the second post, and the fact nothing of value was ever given to anyone for voting for an incident occurring in March of 2025.”
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