Elon Musk to hold town hall in Green Bay Sunday as AG Kaul files injunction to stop $1 million gifts

MADISON, Wis. (AP/WBAY) — Elon Musk’s America PAC has announced that the event in Green Bay that drew a court filing because of promoted monetary gifts to voters will happen on Sunday night, with no mention of the gifts to voters that were in previous posts.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the America PAC posted the details of a town hall in Green Bay at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, just two days before the April 1st election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

According to the post, entrance is being limited to those who have signed Musk’s petition regarding activist judges.

This comes after a post earlier on Friday where Musk said he would give two people in attendance who had voted for Brad Schimel $1 million each. He later deleted the post and made a clarification that the money would be for people to become spokesmen for Musk’s petition. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed an injunction to prevent this and any other payments to Wisconsin voters.

PREVIOUS: Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has filed an injunction in Dane County Court over Elon Musk’s post on X (formerly Twitter) to pay $1 million to two Wisconsin voters who attend an event of his on Sunday night.

Brad Schimel was asked about Musk’s planned event on Friday. He said that he hasn’t been invited to the event and doesn’t know what the rally is.

In the filing, Kaul requests that the courts grant a temporary restraining order that prohibits any further promotion of the promised gifts as well as prohibiting Musk and the America PAC from making any payments to Wisconsin voters. Additionally, he requests “Temporary and permanent injunctive relief on appropriate terms to restrain and prohibit all actions by Defendants taken in furtherance of a planned violation of Wis. Stat. § 12.11.”

Wisconsin statute 12.11 reads:

Any person who does any of the following violates this chapter:

(a) Offers, gives, lends or promises to give or lend, or endeavors to procure, anything of value, or any office or employment or any privilege or immunity to, or for, any elector, or to or for any other person, in order to induce any elector to:

1. Go to or refrain from going to the polls.

2. Vote or refrain from voting.

3. Vote or refrain from voting for or against a particular person.

4. Vote or refrain from voting for or against a particular referendum; or on account of any elector having done any ofthe above.

(b) Receives, agrees or contracts to receive or accept any money, gift, loan, valuable consideration, office or employment personally or for any other person, in consideration that the person or any elector will, so act or has so acted.

(c) Advances, pays or causes to be paid any money to or for the use of any person with the intent that such money or any part thereof will be used to bribe electors at any election

According to court records, the case was randomly assigned to Dane County Judge Susan Crawford at first.

Susan Crawford’s campaign quickly released a statement, recusing herself from the case, saying: “Cases are assigned randomly in Dane County. Judge Crawford will recuse from this case.”

According to AG Kaul, Columbia County Judge W. Andrew Voigt has been assigned to the case. It has been reassigned to Columbia County, according to WISN’s Matt Smith.

PREVIOUS: The Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair, Ben Wikler, released a statement on Elon Musk’s post, saying that he should “be brought to justice” for the offer.

“Elon Musk has committed a blatant felony by offering money for votes in order to help Brad Schimel. Musk’s illegal election bribery scheme to put Brad Schimel on the Supreme Court is a chainsaw attack on democracy and the rule of law in Wisconsin and our nation.

Elon Musk should be brought to justice for his illegal attempt to buy votes for Brad Schimel, and Brad Schimel should immediately condemn Musk’s crimes and disavow his continued involvement in his campaign. If Schimel does not immediately call on Musk to end this criminal activity, we can only assume he is complicit.

Law enforcement must act now before this goes any further. Musk’s crime to assist Brad Schimel has already been committed, and if Elon Musk sets foot in Wisconsin, he should be placed in handcuffs and held accountable—just like any other criminal. Musk can have his day in court, but he cannot buy the court.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul released the following statement in an email to Action 2 News:

“The Wisconsin Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that elections in Wisconsin are safe, secure, free, and fair. We are aware of the offer recently posted by Elon Musk to award a million dollars to two people at an event in Wisconsin this weekend. Based on our understanding of applicable Wisconsin law, we intend to take legal action today to seek a court order to stop this from happening.”

Additionally, Gov. Evers gave a brief statement on Friday afternoon:

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PREVIOUS: Billionaire Elon Musk replaced a post Friday afternoon and now says he’s giving a talk in Wisconsin on Sunday, where he will give $2 million to two people who signed a petition against “activist judges” to be spokesmen for the petition.

Musk deleted an earlier social media post in which he had announced plans to hold a rally to “personally hand over” $2 million to a pair of voters who have already cast their ballots in the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race.

Musk said that attendance at his talk would be limited only to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election, without explaining how he would verify that.

The action was announced despite a Wisconsin law that explicitly prohibits giving anything of value in exchange for a vote.

Musk deleted the post from his social media platform, X, about 12 hours after he initially posted it late Thursday night.

The Supreme Court race has shattered previous spending records for a U.S. judicial election and has become a referendum on Musk and the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump, a Republican, endorsed Brad Schimel and hosted a telephone town hall with him on Thursday night.

“It’s a very important race,” Trump said in brief remarks by phone, in a call organized by Schimel’s campaign. “I know you feel it’s local, but it’s not. It’s really much more than local. The whole country is watching.”

Schimel, a Waukesha County judge, faces Dane County Judge Susan Crawford in Tuesday’s election. Crawford is backed by a wide range of Democrats, including the liberal justices who hold a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and former President Barack Obama. The retirement this year of a liberal justice puts majority control of the court in play.

Musk earlier this week said he had awarded a voter in Green Bay $1 million for signing a petition his political action committee created targeting activist judges. Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Musk’s political action committee, declined to say whether that person was one of the two who would be receiving $1 million as initially indicated on Sunday.

Musk promised $100 to any registered Wisconsin voter who signed the petition or forwarded it to someone who did.

That raised questions about whether the petition violated Wisconsin law that makes it a felony to offer, give, lend or promise to lend or give anything of value to induce a voter to cast a ballot or not vote.

Any legal challenge to Musk’s payments could end up before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Schimel’s campaign spokesperson did not immediately return a message early Friday about whether Schimel would attend the event with Musk.

Schimel, a former attorney general, was asked about the petition on Thursday by WISN-TV.

“I, frankly, thought, ‘Should I sign that petition? I’m against activist judges, but I don’t think I should do that,‘” Schimel said.

When asked about the $1 million award, Schimel said, “I don’t know what the criteria to get it was.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, didn’t respond to messages Thursday or early Friday about Musk’s giveaways.

Crawford’s campaign spokesperson Derrick Honeyman, though, called Musk’s announced visit to Wisconsin a “last-minute desperate distraction.”

“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and, on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” he said.

Musk’s political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the White House election last year, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

During last year’s presidential race, Philadelphia’s district attorney sued in an attempt to stop the payments under Pennsylvania law. But a judge said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through Election Day.

Musk and groups he funds have already spent more than $20 million in an effort to elect Schimel, while billionaire George Soros has given $2 million to bolster Crawford, and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has donated $1.5 million.

Musk got involved in the race just days after his electric car company, Tesla, filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin in an effort to open dealerships in the state.

Crawford and her allies have accused Musk of trying to buy influence on the court given that Tesla’s lawsuit could end up before the justices.

The race comes as the Wisconsin Supreme Court is also expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of true battleground states, which only intensifies the focus on court races where rules for voting will be decided. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024 by less than a percentage point, but he lost it in 2020 by a similar margin. Five of the past seven presidential elections in the state have been decided by less than a percentage point.

More than $81 million has been spent on the Supreme Court race so far, obliterating the record for a judicial race in the U.S. of $51 million set in Wisconsin just two years ago, according to Brennan Center tallies.

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