http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/ads/crawford-ad-musk-2025-s460.pngThe ad is currently active on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta

MADISON, Wis. – Elon Musk’s shady far-right group has parachuted into Wisconsin to prop up extreme politician Brad Schimel and is running shameful and deceitful digital ads full of lies. But new reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that Musk’s ads don’t even feature Judge Susan M. Crawford, candidate for the state Supreme Court, but instead Susan P. Crawford, a completely different person.

The ad is currently active on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta. See for yourself on Meta’s Ad Library and below. The image of Susan P. Crawford that Musk’s group is using appears to be pulled from her Wikipedia page.

In response, campaign spokesman Derrick Honeyman released the following statement:

"These shameful attack ads from Elon Musk and Brad Schimel are a fraud from start to finish, even using an obviously incorrect photo that they falsely claim is Judge Crawford. Schimel's campaign has already been caught using AI to manipulate an image of Judge Crawford, and now Musk’s ad uses a photo of a completely different person to bolster his false attacks. Maybe an audit is needed of the staff at Musk’s shady far-right group. Wisconsinites shouldn't trust a single thing from these guys."

Musk’s deceitful ads comes after Brad Schimel’s campaign used a potentially AI-manipulated image of Judge Crawford in an ad, which is a violation of a bipartisan state law that requires disclosure of AI in political advertisements. Schimel’s campaign admitted to editing the image, and after an ethics complaint was filed, the Wisconsin Ethics Commission is investigating the Schimel campaign. And in Schimel’s first ad of the campaign, he appeared with a disgraced Sheriff accused of sexual harassment and censured 19-1 by the local county board.

It’s no surprise Musk and Schimel are struggling to get the facts right. Judge Crawford sentenced the individual mentioned in the false ad to a 10 year sentence, with four years in prison followed by six years of strict supervision. He’s twice filed for a new trial, which Judge Crawford has denied, and he’s not reoffended, unlike dozens of domestic abusers and other violent criminals that Brad Schimel has let walk with little to no sentences.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bice: Elon Musk group posts photo of wrong Susan Crawford in digital ad

• One of the first attack ads launched by a Elon Musk-backed group in the hotly contested state Supreme Court race has landed with a resounding thud.

• That's because the ad that Building America's Future is currently running on social media doesn't feature Susan M. Crawford, the liberal Dane County judge running for the high court against conservative Brad Schimel.

• Rather, the digital ad has a large photo of Susan P. Crawford, a law school professor at Harvard University. It appears Building America's Future lifted her picture from her Wikipedia profile.

• "Susan Crawford: Wrong for Wisconsin," the ad says. Ok, but which Crawford? Perhaps, more accurately, it should read, "Wrong Susan Crawford for Wisconsin."

• Records show the faulty digital ad has been running on Facebook and Instagram since Thursday, with an estimated audience of 100,000 to 500,000 people at a cost of up to $3,000, according to numbers from Meta, owner of the two social media platforms.

• At a campaign event in Cambridge, the real Susan Crawford said she had seen the digital ad by the outsider group. The winner of the April 1 election between Schimel and Crawford will determine the ideological direction of the high court. "It just says volumes about them trying to charge into a state of Wisconsin race without even knowing who the candidate is," Crawford said Sunday.