A political action committee backed by billionaire Elon Musk is being investigated by state officials in Michigan following a report that it was collecting detailed information about swing-state residents who attempted to register to vote through its website.
A spokesperson for Michigan Attorney General Jocelyn Benson said the Department of State was reviewing the activities of the America PAC to "determine if there have been any violations of state law."
The agency "will refer potential violations to the Michigan Attorney General's office as appropriate," spokesperson Angela Benander said in a statement Sunday.
"Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state," Benander said.
The America PAC declined to comment and Musk, who last month endorsed former President Donald Trump, didn't return email inquiries, according to CNBC, which first reported on the probe
Benson is a Democrat who in April accused Trump of "misleading American voters" with "false claims about voter fraud" allegedly committed by non-U.S. citizens.
Sunday's statement from her office came two days after CNBC reported that an online ad invoking the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump led computer users to PAC's website and a virtual button labeled "Register to Vote."
If a user clicked the button and entered a ZIP code in a battleground state for this year's presidential election, they were directed to a form that asked for personal information including their age, address and cellphone number, CNBC said.
Last month, the New York Times reported that some of Musk's closest friends had helped start the America PAC and CNBC reported that Musk said in a subsequent online interview that "I have created a PAC, or a super PAC...the America PAC."
Musk — who's ranked by Forbes as the world's richest person, with a fortune estimated at more than $221 billion — has also said that he's "making some donations to America PAC" but they're not reflected in campaign finance filings that don't have to be updated until Oct. 15, CNBC said.
