ELON Musk has claimed a rival billionaire planted a protester who heckled him during his own rally.
The rally came ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to president Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilisation", and follows a late legal challenge to stop him.
Taking the stage in Green Bay wearing a yellow foam cheesehead hat, synonymous with Wisconsin and the Green Bay Packers American football team, Musk painted the judicial race he has pumped more than 20 million dollars (£15.4m) into as pivotal for the country.
Musk then gave 1 million dollars each to two voters who have already cast ballots in the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race.
Wisconsin law that explicitly prohibits giving anything of value in exchange for a vote.
Brad 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.
Billionaire George Soros has given two million dollars to bolster Crawford, while Musk and Trump are backing Schimel.
At the rally on, a protester went on to interrupt him, to which Musk replied: "Say hi to George for me" as the crowd broke into chants of "USA, USA" along with him.
"It was inevitable that at least a few Soros operatives would be in the audience ... give my regards to George!," Musk added.
His comments were in reference to Soros, who Musk claims is behind the increasing spate of attacks on Tesla and its showrooms since Musk became part of the US president's core team. Trump has supported his claims.
When questioned if Soros was behind the recent attacks on Tesla, Trump said: "I believe that that is part of it, yeah. There are some of them that were involved with my trials that were, I think, probably involved with that also."
Musk got involved in the race just days after his electric car company, Tesla, filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin in an effort to open dealerships in the state.
Crawford and her allies have accused Musk of trying to buy influence on the court given that Tesla’s lawsuit could end up before the justices.
