CNN
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Elon Musk’s super PAC awarded two $1 million prizes to registered voters in Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday after being warned by the Justice Department that the payments could be illegal.

These are the first giveaways from the pro-Donald Trump super PAC after news emerged Wednesday that the Justice Department had sent a letter to the group, warning that the “daily” sweepstakes could violate federal law. election laws against paying for voter registrations.

Musk, Tesla’s CEO and the richest man in the world, launched the sweepstakes on Saturday and his super PAC had selected a winner each day — until Wednesday. No winner was announced at the time, but two winners were announced Thursday on X, the social media platform that Musk owns.

The group has not provided a public explanation for the apparent one-day hiatus, and a spokesperson for the super PAC declined to comment. It is not clear when Musk received the letter from the Justice Department.

Nonpartisan election law experts immediately raised concerns about the lottery after Musk’s initial rollout on Saturday at a pro-Trump campaign event in Pennsylvania.

To win the $1 million prize, people must sign a petition expressing their support for the right to free speech and bear arms. However, the fine print on the super PAC’s website specifies that only registered voters in seven battleground states are eligible to sign the petition — which experts say is at the heart of its potential illegality.

These controversial demands were unchanged as of Thursday evening and remain on the super PAC’s website.

Federal law makes it a crime for anyone who “pays or offers to pay or accepts any payment for registration to vote or to vote.”

Legal experts previously told CNN that they believe the biggest problem with Musk’s giveaway was that voter registration was a requirement for entry into the lottery. The problem could be solved if the lottery were offered to every American, regardless of registration status.

In response to a report claiming Musk “paid to register Republicans,” the tech mogul said the winners “could be from any political party or no political party and you don’t even have to vote.” He has also criticized Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and former attorney general, for questioning the legality of the lottery.

Federal filings show that Musk has donated nearly $119 million — including about $44 million in October — to America PAC, the super PAC he helped form to re-elect Trump. He has said he hopes the lottery will boost registration among Trump voters. He recently went on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, where he held events advocating on Trump’s behalf, promoting his petition and spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

America PAC also received about $3 million in October from members of the influential DeVos family, including $250,000 from former Trump administration education secretary Betsy DeVos, who resigned in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

These additional donations in October allowed Musk’s group to continue spending tens of millions of dollars on canvassing and field operations in key battleground states, helping the Trump campaign keep pace with Kamala Harris’ record-breaking fundraising and massive campaign spending.

CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.