Legal Random, Random

[ti-amie]

Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes can proceed, a Pennsylvania judge says

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that Elon Musk ‘s political action committee is hosting in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday.

Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta — ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are paid spokespeople and not chosen by chance — did not immediately explain his reasoning.

District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, had called the process a scam “designed to actually influence a national election” and asked that it be shut down.

Musk lawyer Chris Gober said the final two recipients before Tuesday’s presidential election will be in Arizona on Monday and Michigan on Tuesday.

“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.

Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said that Krasner’s bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.

Krasner believes the giveaways violates state election law and contradict what Musk promised when he announced them during an appearance with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ‘s campaign in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 19: “We’re going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk vowed.

Young also acknowledged that the PAC made the recipients sign nondisclosure agreements.

“They couldn’t really reveal the truth about how they got the money, right?” Summers asked.

“Sounds right,” Young said.

In an Oct. 20 social media post shown in court, Musk said anyone signing the petition had “a daily chance of winning $1M!”

Summers grilled him on Musk’s use of both the words “chance” and “randomly,” prompting Young to concede the latter was not “the word I would have selected.”

Young said the winners knew they would be called on stage but not specifically that they would win the money.

Musk did not attend the hearing. He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.

“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner testified Monday. “That’s what it is. A grift.”

Lawyers for Musk and the PAC said they do not plan to extend the lottery beyond Tuesday. Krasner said the first three winners, starting on Oct. 19, came from Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the state’s Oct. 21 voter registration deadline.

Other winners came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. It’s not clear if anyone has yet received the money. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.

More than 1 million people from the seven states have registered for the sweepstakes by signing a petition saying they support the right to free speech and to bear arms, the first two amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Krasner questioned how the PAC might use their data, which it will have on hand well past the election.

“They were scammed for their information,” Krasner said. “It has almost unlimited use.”

Krasner’s team called Musk “the heartbeat of America PAC,” and the person announcing the winners and presenting the checks.

“He was the one who presented the checks, albeit large cardboard checks. We don’t really know if there are any real checks,” Summers said.

Foglietta presided over the case at Philadelphia City Hall after Musk and the PAC lost an effort to move it to federal court.


Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, as he’s tasked with protecting both lotteries and the integrity of elections.

Pennsylvania remains a key battleground state with 19 electoral votes and both Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris have repeatedly visited the state, including stops planned Monday in the final hours of the campaign.

Krasner — who noted that he has long driven a Tesla — said he could also seek civil damages for the Pennsylvania registrants. Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. He also owns the social media platform X, where America PAC has published posts on the sweepstakes, and the rocket ship maker SpaceX.

https://apnews.com/article/musk-million ... 4ef16e7320

[ti-amie]

This was always about getting information on people. How they will use it is anyone's guess.

[ponchi101]

Serious here. What kind of info were they gathering that they already didn't have? He owns TWT, so he basically knows everything about 50% of all people in the USA (or the world).
And the data they got is from hard core MAGA's. Which fairly similar to each other.

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Good luck with those lawsuits. Now.

[Owendonovan]

Where's my unearned million dollars that I deserve!?!?

[ti-amie]

Where's my unearned million dollars that I deserve!?!?

Suckers thought they were signing up for a lottery.

[ti-amie]

[Owendonovan]

No sentimental value to Ruby and Shaye.

[ponchi101]

Of cour$e they have $entimental value. Lot$ of it!!!

[ti-amie]

Suspect in killing of health care CEO faces 5 charges including forgery and firearm without a license
By Ashley R. Williams, Gloria Pazmino, Mark Morales, Brynn Gingras, John Miller, Dakin Andone and Zoe Sottile, CNN

Updated 9:23 PM EST, Mon December 9, 2024

(CNN) — After a five-day manhunt that expanded beyond the nation’s largest city and across state lines, a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been arrested on five charges in Pennsylvania and ordered held without bail.

Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from Maryland, was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania – after an employee tipped off police that he resembled photos of the suspect widely distributed by New York City police.

Mangione is charged with one felony count of forgery, one felony count of carrying a firearm without a license, one misdemeanor count of tampering with records or identification, one misdemeanor count of possessing instruments of a crime and one misdemeanor count of false identification to law enforcement authorities, according to a criminal complaint released Monday.

He did not enter a plea at his first court appearance Monday evening, which took place just hours after his arrest.

The fatal shooting of Thompson outside an investors’ conference in Midtown Manhattan sparked an exhaustive search, with New York police combing the city for evidence and poring through thousands of hours of video footage. The breakthrough came Monday morning at the McDonald’s in Altoona, about 230 miles from the hotel where the shooting happened.

When two police officers arrived, they found a man “wearing a medical mask and a beanie” sitting “in the rear of the building at a table,” looking at a laptop, according to a criminal complaint released Monday.

Officers asked him to pull down the mask to see his face and “immediately recognized him as the suspect,” according to the criminal complaint.

The officers asked the man for identification and he gave them a New Jersey ID with the name Mark Rosario. When they asked whether he had been to New York City recently, he “became quiet and started to shake,” the criminal complaint says.

Police were unable to find any records that matched the ID given and told the man he was under an official police investigation. He then told officers his real name: Luigi Mangione.

When an officer asked why he had used a false name, he replied, “I clearly shouldn’t have,” according to the complaint.

After arresting Mangione, police found “a black 3D-printed pistol” with a loaded Glock magazine and a “black silencer” that was also 3D-printed in his backpack, says the criminal complaint. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said earlier in the day Mangione was found with a gun and a suppressor “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” referring to a device that muffles the sound of a firearm.

The NYPD chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny, previously described the weapon found with Mangione as a “ghost gun,” an untraceable weapon, and capable of firing a 9 mm round.

Authorities also recovered a “fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the ID our suspect used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting,” Tisch said, and “a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset.” Kenny said the document did not include specific threats but indicated “ill will towards corporate America.”

“These parasites had it coming,” one line from the document reads, according to a police official who has seen it. Another reads, “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.” The document indicates the suspect acted alone, and that he was self-funded, according to Kenny.

In addition to the weapon and fake ID found on the suspect, Tisch said, police recovered “clothing, including a mask, consistent with those worn by our wanted individual.”

The NYPD and FBI arrived in Altoona on Monday afternoon, according to Republican Rep. John Joyce of Pennsylvania.

Mangione was interviewed by police at the Altoona Police Department, an officer told CNN, before he was taken to the Blair County courthouse.

He was temporarily assigned a public defender at his first court appearance. CNN has not yet identified his attorney.

Pennsylvania State Police said they believe Mangione had been in the state for “several days.” Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a Monday news conference that as the investigation progresses, he is “confident we’ll have a much better idea of his activities over the past, you know, number of days in New York and in Pennsylvania.”

“We’ve already identified businesses, for example, that he frequented in this area and activities that he engaged in — that led us to more evidence, and so all of that is becoming kind of a mountain of evidence that has to be analyzed and looked at.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the suspect had traveled between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, making stops in between.

The head of the private school from which Mangione graduated from sent an email to parents and members of the school community, calling the news “deeply distressing.”

“This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected,” Gilman School Headmaster Henry P.A. Smyth said in the email.

UnitedHealth Group hopes “today’s apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues, and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn,” the spokesperson said.

Here’s more of what we know about the suspect:

Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and his last known address was in Honolulu, according to Kenny. He had no history of arrests in New York, said the chief of detectives.

Mangione graduated from Gilman School – a prestigious all-boys school in Baltimore, where he served as valedictorian – and the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, with a master’s and bachelor’s degree in computer science and a minor in mathematics.

One former classmate who said they studied alongside Mangione at the University of Pennsylvania described him as a “totally normal guy.”

A Goodreads profile that appears to belong the suspect shows that earlier this year, he reported having read the 1995 antitechnology manifesto written by the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, the infamous domestic terrorist and mathematician known for sending deadly bombs through the mail between 1978 and 1995.

How the investigation unfolded
Catching the suspect came down to “good old-fashioned police work,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said Monday, citing the McDonald’s employee who called in a tip.

“For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips, and processed every bit of forensic evidence: DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses, and so much more, to tighten the net,” said police commissioner Tisch.

Authorities knew what the suspect looked like but not who or where he was. Over the weekend, they released new photos of him: in the backseat of a taxi and wearing a jacket while walking on the street. In both, he wears a hood and a face mask.

The public, too, had seen the suspect in surveillance photos and videos, including one with him pointing the weapon at Thompson’s back.

Some of the suspect’s actions – such as pulling his mask down on camera, and leaving behind inscribed shell casings that may point to a motive, a burner phone and a partial fingerprint on a water bottle – only added to the clues authorities could use.

Police continue to look into whether words found on the casings – “Deny,” “Defend,” and “Depose” – may point to a motive. A 2010 book critiquing the insurance industry is titled, “Delay Deny Defend,” a common description of the industry’s tactics.

Here are other key developments:

Still missing is an electric bike the suspect rode toward Central Park after the shooting, according to surveillance images released by authorities. Divers previously searched a lake in Central Park for the weapon used in the shooting, a law enforcement official told CNN.

A partial fingerprint and DNA recovered early in the search for the suspect have so far not yielded matches when compared against law enforcement databases, according to a law enforcement official. The fingerprint was recovered from a purported “burner phone” thought to belong to the suspect, and the DNA from a water bottle and energy bar wrapper the suspect is said to have bought.

A backpack believed to be the suspect’s was recovered Friday in Central Park, a law enforcement source said. It contained money from the Monopoly board game, a law enforcement source told CNN, and a Tommy Hilfiger jacket, law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/09/us/u ... index.html

[ponchi101]

But he has not been charged with murder. That is so odd.

[ti-amie]

Suspect won’t agree to be extradited to New York

Amy Schafer

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pennsylvania — Luigi Mangione does not consent to being extradited to New York, where he faces a murder charge and other counts in connection with Brian Thompson’s death there, Mangione’s lawyer said Tuesday at a hearing where the suspect appeared.

Thomas M. Dickey, Mangione’s attorney, argued that his client deserved to have bail set. The judge declined to do so, and Mangione will remain in a Pennsylvania state prison.

[ti-amie]

But he has not been charged with murder. That is so odd.

The murder charges are filed in New York

Mark Berman
While Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder and other crimes in New York, he remains in custody in Pennsylvania. For Mangione to be transported to New York to face those charges, he must be extradited. Peter J. Weeks, district attorney in the area where Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania, has said that if Mangione challenges his extradition, the process could take up to 45 days.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... stigation/

[ti-amie]

12:22 p.m. EST

Mark Berman
Here is the criminal complaint filed against Luigi Mangione in New York.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/document ... _manual_56