Welcome back Videos are flooding social media now of billionaire
Elon Musk's $1 million giveaway to voters in swing states.
To qualify, you've got to sign a petition supporting the
1st and 2nd Amendments.
But there's a catch.
You can only sign the petition if you're a registered
voter.
Critics have questioned whether that move is legal or not,
but Musk's pack says they are confident it is.
So chances are you heard about that, but probably not.
This a different effort to appeal to swing state voters,
this time by an organization that calls itself Progress 2028.
They're running ads, these ads in particular, misleading ads right
now as we speak on Facebook, appearing to look like
they're from Kamala Harris or Democratic supporters.
But they're touting policy positions that often the Harris campaign
explicitly does not have, like claiming Harris wants to ban
fracking.
This show us here.
We reviewed Facebook ad data and more than 300 of
these ads were purchased to be placed in the feeds
of voters in every single swing state.
So to talk more about that and about that Elon
Musk giveaway, we want to bring in Anna Masoglia with
Open Secrets, who began some of the reporting on those
ads.
Anna, thank you so much for your time.
Thanks for joining us.
Where do these ads come from?
Who is behind them?
Well, Progress 2028 is a project of a group called
Building America's Future that is a dark money group.
We don't know who the many of the funders are
behind it, but it is tied to Elon Musk based
on reporting by The New York Times.
And they've adopted this fictitious name as Project 2028.
And so it's not what it appears to be.
It appears to be this pro Kamala Harris effort that
is run by her supporters, a counter to Project 2025,
whereas in actuality, it's run by this pro Trump Dark
Money Network.
And you were able to trace them, I read your
article by checking the fictitious name that they registered in
Virginia State business records.
So you can have a fictitious name as a political
group.
That's something that's permissible.
That is correct.
Can adopt aliases and go by multiple different names, whatever
they so choose.
They also have funneled money to various super PACs that
are spending on elections directly.
So they have many different identities that they are now
putting out information about.
South, a Republican Alliance super PAC is behind these ads,
these misleading ads targeting voters in swing states.
Well, Project 2028 is actually a 5O1C4's project, which means
that it's not even supposed to be an explicitly political
group.
But because of very LAX rules, it is able to
not disclose its donors, not disclose its spending, but still
spend in a way that really influences the election and
can really shape voters views.
Now, you cited their reporting from the New York Times
saying that Elon Musk is connected to the group behind
those ads.
I do want to stay with Elon Musk very quickly
because there's been this controversy surrounding him now and this
$1 million voter giveaway.
There have been criticisms that that is illegal, that it
violates federal and state election law.
What is the law here when it comes to this?
Well, Musk can put as much money as he wants
into influencing elections, giving to his super PAC to spend
and support our opposition of a candidate.
You can have to get giveaways, you can have events.
But really where it gets into much murkier legal territory
is when you are giving for the purpose of only
supporting votes.
You can't pay for votes.
You can't buy votes.
And when you are giving to a 'cause that requires
people to be registered voters, it's much less clear.
So is my understanding correct that the Gray area is
because he is not necessarily paying someone directly for their
vote or to register to vote, He's paying them theoretically
if they win this giveaway to sign this petition that
happens to be connected to his pack and obviously he
has endorsed a candidate.
Is that all correct?
Correct.
And where it really has issues is because they have
to be registered voters in order to sign up.
Interesting.
So if they didn't have to be registered voters or
if it wasn't a campaign, particularly in swing states, which
it is, he would potentially not have the legal issues
that he may be having.
That's correct.
Now, the campaign or the pack rather, has said this
is legal.
We know that there's a call for various local and
federal authorities to investigate this.
But point being, it all hinges upon is he or
is he not paying someone directly for their vote?
That's the law here.
Exactly.
And we're in really uncharted territory here because he has
such unprecedented funds to pour into this.
We really haven't faced this issue before and this is
something we never really have seen anything like before.
Or are there other examples of this going on?
None that I'm aware of.
Interesting.
And, and, and help me understand here then.
You know, you said he can put as much money
he wants into a pack.
I want to go back to those ads that we
were talking about, the Facebook ads.
You said that that group was a quote UN quote,
dark money group.
Explain to me what that is meaning You can give
money to them, but they don't have to disclose their
donors.
That's correct.
So Progress 2028 is a fictitious name or project of
a group called Building America's Future.
They don't have to disclose their donors because they are
5 O1 C4 nonprofit, unlike a super PAC, which does
have to disclose its donors to the Federal Election Commission
and file a number of financial disclosures with the FEC.
But because of the way it's structured, a super PAC
can just report a dark money group as well.
And that's another way that Building America's Future has really
started to have impact by giving money to the Super
PAC's.
And because super PAC's have to disclose their donors, all
they have to do is disclose that Building America's Future
is giving them money, ultimately hiding the source of funds.
So you can give money to a group as a
billionaire, whoever you are, right?
It goes to that group.
No one ever has to know you gave money to
the group.
And then they can loan out money to people that
do have to report where they're getting their donors.
That's correct.
They can just give the money there.
You also have the dart money groups able to spend
directly on certain messaging like this Project Progress 2028 AD,
where because they're not explicitly calling for election or defeat
of a candidate, because it's online media, it exploits some
loopholes and disclosures so that they're not have to, they
don't have to be disclosed.
And I'm so glad making us a lot smarter about
the money behind our politics.
Thank you so much for your time on this Tuesday
afternoon.
We should note on this program, By the way, we
did reach out to the organization behind those Progress 2028
ads for comment.
We have not yet heard back.