By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general asked a court on Friday to block billionaire Elon Musk from handing out $1 million checks to voters this weekend, just two days before the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race was to be decided.

Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court to stop Musk from making the payments, which he said he would make Sunday in Wisconsin. Musk initially said in a post on his social media platform, X, that he planned to “personally hand over” $2 million to a pair of voters who have already cast their ballots in the race.

Musk later posted a clarification, saying the money will go to people who will be “spokesmen” for an online petition against “activist” judges. After first saying the event would only be open to people who had voted in the Supreme Court race, he said attendance would be limited to those who have signed the petition.

A man places his ballot in a box during early voting in Waukesha, Wis Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Also on Friday, Musk’s political action committee identified the recipient of its first $1 million giveaway — a Green Bay man who had donated to the Wisconsin GOP and the conservative candidate in the court race, and who has a history of posting support for President Donald Trump and his agenda.

Musk deleted the post about the Sunday giveaway from his social media platform, X, about 12 hours after he initially posted it late Thursday night. He issued the clarification about an hour later.

He had posted that he planned to give $1 million each to two voters at the event on Sunday, just two days before the election that will determine ideological control of the court in the battleground state.

“I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” Musk’s now deleted post said. “This is super important.”

Stickers on a table as people cast ballots during early voting in Waukesha, Wis., Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

The Supreme Court race has shattered previous spending records for a U.S. judicial election and has become a referendum on Musk and the first months of Trump’s administration.

Trump endorsed Brad Schimel, a fellow Republican, and hosted a telephone town hall with him on Thursday night.

“It’s a very important race,” Trump said in brief remarks by phone, in a call organized by Schimel’s campaign. “I know you feel it’s local, but it’s not. It’s really much more than local. The whole country is watching.”

FILE – This combination of file photos shows Brad Schimel, former Republican attorney general, in Madison, Wis., Jan. 5, 2015, and Susan Crawford in June 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, Susan Crawford for Wisconsin, File)

Schimel, a Waukesha County judge, faces Dane County Judge Susan Crawford in Tuesday’s election. Crawford is backed by a wide range of Democrats, including the liberal justices who hold a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and former President Barack Obama. The retirement this year of a liberal justice puts majority control of the court in play.

Musk’s PAC said Friday that it had awarded $1 million to Scott Ainsworth, a mechanical engineer from Green Bay, for signing its petition protesting against “activist” judges. In a video posted on X, Ainsworth encouraged people to sign the petition and “get out and vote early for Brad Schimel.”

“If everyone in the MAGA movement shows up and votes for Brad Schimel, we will win,” Ainsworth said in the video.

A sign along a street in Milwaukee, Wis., Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Ainsworth donated $350 to Schimel’s campaign this year, campaign finance records show. He has also made dozens of Facebook posts since January supporting Schimel, including photos from campaign events, local organizations’ endorsements of Schimel and X posts from Trump urging Wisconsinites to vote for Schimel.

Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Musk’s political action committee, declined to say whether Ainsworth was one of the two who would be receiving $1 million on Sunday.

Musk promised $100 to any registered Wisconsin voter who signed the petition or forwarded it to someone who did.

That raised questions about whether the petition violated Wisconsin law, which makes it a felony to offer, give, lend, or promise to lend or give anything of value to induce a voter to cast a ballot or not vote.

Musk changing the terms of his offer may mitigate the circumstances, but it doesn’t necessarily resolve the legal issue, said Bryan Godar, staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

“The question is whether the offers are ‘in order to induce’ people to vote or go to the polls, and there can be arguments made on either side of that question,” she said in an email.

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Any legal challenge to Musk’s payments could end up before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Schimel, a former attorney general, was asked about the petition on Thursday by WISN-TV.

“I, frankly, thought, ‘Should I sign that petition? I’m against activist judges, but I don’t think I should do that,’” Schimel said.

When asked about the $1 million award, Schimel said, “I don’t know what the criteria to get it was.”

Crawford’s campaign spokesperson Derrick Honeyman, called Musk’s announced visit to Wisconsin a “last-minute desperate distraction.”

“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and, on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” he said.

Musk’s political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the White House election last year, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

A judge in Pennsylvania said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through Election Day.

Musk and groups he funds have already spent more than $20 million in an effort to elect Schimel, while billionaire George Soros has given $2 million to bolster Crawford, and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has donated $1.5 million.

The race comes as the Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

Associated Press writer Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed to this report.

By ASHRAF KHALIL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is pushing the House of Representatives to pass a measure that would prevent immediate financial disaster for the District of Columbia even as he continues to level harsh criticism at the city and its leaders.

In a Friday morning post on Truth Social, he wrote, “The House should take up the D.C. funding ‘fix’ that the Senate has passed, and get it done IMMEDIATELY.”

It’s the first direct public indication from the Republican president that he supports efforts to restore a $1.1 billion hole in the district’s budget, and it’s a major boost for Democratic Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s campaign to reverse a legislative change that she says would devastate the capital city.

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Earlier this month, the House passed a federal government funding bill that would force the district’s government to revert to its 2024 budget parameters, effectively cutting $1.1 billion from its budget midway through the financial year.

Bowser spearheaded an intense congressional lobbying campaign to prevent the change, saying it would result in immediate across-the-board cuts to staffing and programs, including teachers and police officers being laid off.

The Senate approved the funding bill with the cut but immediately followed up with a separate bill that would make the district’s budget whole again. That measure now awaits House approval, and Bowser has delayed unveiling her 2026 budget plan until the issue is resolved.

Despite indications that Trump supported the budget fix, he had not publicly weighed in until now. The House adjourns for its spring recess on April 11, and House Republican leadership has remained vague on the topic, with Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana saying Tuesday that it was too early to confirm when the House would vote on the budget fix.

“We’re working through that,” Johnson said.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said earlier this week that the district’s claim of financial ruin “sounds overstated.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Thursday that the April 11 recess provides a natural deadline and a sense of urgency.

“It needs to happen before we go on the next district work period, which means it should occur either next week or the week after next,” Jeffries said.

Speaking before Trump’s Friday posting, Jeffries said, “apparently even Donald Trump himself has expressed support for the need to correct this egregious error.”

Trump’s endorsement of the budget fix comes amid a flurry of attention on the nation’s capital, with the president issuing a series of statements and executive orders targeting crime, homelessness, immigration policy and gun control in the district.

On Thursday night, Trump issued an executive order establishing the inter-departmental D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which he said would coordinate with local officials on such things as enforcing federal immigration law, including deporting people living illegally in the city, boosting the law enforcement presence and increasing the speed and lowering the cost of processing applications to carry concealed weapons.

“America’s capital must be a place in which residents, commuters, and tourists feel safe at all hours, including on public transit. Its highways, boulevards, and parks should be clean, well-kept, and pleasant,” the order stated. “Its monuments, museums, and buildings should reflect and inspire awe and appreciation for our Nation’s strength, greatness, and heritage.”

And despite the support for the budget fix, Trump’s Friday morning posting also came with criticism of the nation’s capital and a warning: “We need to clean up our once beautiful Capital City, and make it beautiful again.”

“We will be TOUGH ON CRIME, like never before,” Trump wrote. “I will work with the Mayor on this and, if it does not happen, will have no choice but to do it myself.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s non-voting delegate in the House, hailed Trump’s support for the budget fix and tied the issue into Washington’s longstanding and increasingly beleaguered campaign to become the 51st state.

“As surprised as I am to have an occasion to agree with President Trump, in this instance, we agree that D.C. should be able to spend its own local funds at its own locally enacted levels,” Norton, a Democrat, said in a statement. “This ordeal, however, only helps to highlight the need for D.C. statehood so that D.C. can finally govern itself to the same extent afforded to the states, including making decisions about how to use its own local funds.”

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Kevin Freking and Leah Askarinam contributed to this report.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that was targeted for mass firings before the court’s intervention.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to issue a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the agency. The judge said the court “can and must act” to save the agency from being shuttered.

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During a March 10 hearing, Jackson heard testimony about the chaos that erupted inside the agency after government employees were ordered to stop working last month. The bureau’s chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, said the agency was in “wind-down mode” after President Donald Trump fired its previous director, Rohit Chopra, on Feb. 1.

Trump installed a temporary replacement who ordered the immediate suspension of all agency operations, cancelled $100 million in contracts and fired 70 employees.

Martinez said the agency’s current leaders have adopted a more methodical approach than they initially did last month, when representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency arrived at its Washington headquarters.

CFPB is responsible for protecting consumers from financial fraud and deceptive practices. Congress created the bureau after the 2008 financial crisis. It processes consumer complaints and examines banks to protect student loan borrowers.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — An appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump can fire two board members of independent agencies handling labor issues from their respective posts in the federal government.

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A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed to lift orders blocking the Trump administration from removing Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris and National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox.

On March 4, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that Trump illegally tried to fire Harris. Two days later, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Trump did not have the authority to remove Wilcox.

The Justice Department asked the appellate court to suspend those orders while they appeal the decisions.

President Joe Biden nominated Harris to the merit systems board in 2021 and nominated Wilcox to a second five-year term as an NLRB member in 2023.