Wisconsin Elections Commission refers complaints over Elon Musk’s $1 million voter checks to Brown County DA

According to CNBC, the Wisconsin Elections Commission found probable cause that billionaire Elon Musk likely violated Wisconsin’s election bribery law by offering and handing out $1 million checks to voters in the 2025 state Supreme Court election and referred two confidential complaints to the Brown County district attorney’s office. The commission voted 5-1 in closed session to make the referral, and prosecutors have 40 days to report back; Brown County District Attorney David Lasee did not immediately comment. The referral cited a social media post offering $1 million to people who voted in the election to induce them to vote. Three Wisconsin voters received checks from Musk, including two who got them in person at a Green Bay rally days before the election. Musk and groups he supported spent at least $20 million backing Republican-supported candidate Brad Schimel, who lost by 10 percentage points to Democratic-backed Susan Crawford; overall spending topped $100 million. A separate lawsuit by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign seeking to bar Musk from offering cash payments in the state is pending in Brown County, and a prior attempt by Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general to stop the checks was rejected by state courts.