A lawsuit filed earlier this week accuses tech billionaire Elon Musk and his super PAC of failing to pay canvassers who helped President Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Musk and America PAC pledged $100 to registered voters in battleground states who signed a petition and said it would give the individual another $100 for every additional voter they convinced to sign the free speech and gun rights petition.
A man from the Philadelphia suburbs, who anonymously filed the lawsuit out of fear of retribution, said Musk and the PAC owe him $20,000 for gathering the signatures in the lead-up to the election.
The suit was first reported by CNN.
The man’s attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, told the outlet that the lawsuit is about “keeping promises.”
“He was expecting to be able to pay his bills because of this promise,” she said. “He was pounding the pavement during the campaign because Elon Musk asked him to. He believed in Elon Musk.”
The lawsuit argues the individual was paid his hourly rate for canvassing and "some referrals" for the petition sign-ups, but the man said he was not paid the $20,000 he estimated for the number of referral signatures he obtained.
The man said he has made repeated attempts to contact the PAC, looking to receive the full payment, “but to no avail.”
America PAC spokesperson Andrew Romeo denied wrongdoing and said the organization is committed to paying for "every legitimate petition signature," which is evidenced by the "tens of millions" the PAC has paid organizers.
"While we don't yet know who this 'John Doe' plaintiff is and can't speak to their specific circumstances, we can say that we are also committed to rooting out fraud and have the right to withhold payments to fraudsters," Romeo said in a statement to The Hill.
Shortly after the election, it was reported that Musk, who now leads the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, spent around $200 million to help elect Trump.
