Background: President Joe Biden speaks about the economy, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin). Inset: In this image taken from video, Steve Kramer speaks during an interview on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in Miami. Kramer is the Democratic consultant behind robocalls that mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice. (AP Photo)
Steven Kramer, a political consultant who allegedly sent thousands of New Hampshire voters robocalls using artificial intelligence that mimicked President Joe Biden‘s voice and told them not to vote in this year’s presidential primary election, has been criminally indicted and fined.
Kramer admitted to making the calls in January just days before the presidential primary got underway in New Hampshire. According to Kramer, the messages were meant to draw attention to the power and perils of AI technology but prosecutors argue they violate state laws around voter deterrence. The messages used a convincing imitation of Biden saying a phrase famously invoked by the current president, “What a bunch of malarkey!” before telling the listener that a vote in the presidential primary would mean they could not cast a ballot during the general election this November.
Kramer has been charged with over two dozen counts, with roughly half of them tied to felony voter suppression charges. The other charges are misdemeanors including allegations of making a false statement and impersonating a political candidate.
As Law&Crime previously reported, a group of voters in New Hampshire sued Kramer in civil court for creating the deepfake robocalls, alleging that he hired companies like Lingo Telecom LLC and Life Corporation to pull off the scheme. In that case, one voter said the fake Biden voice sounded so genuine that she did not “think about it at the time that it wasn’t his real voice.”
“That’s how convincing it was,” she said.
When New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced the criminal charges Thursday, he said an investigation “remains ongoing.”
In addition, the Federal Communications Commission unveiled that it proposed fining Kramer $6 million for his “spoofing” scheme, which is prohibited under the Truth in Caller in ID Act.
Lingo Telecom should be fined $2 million for its routing of the robocalls, the FCC says.
“I hope that our respective enforcement actions send a strong deterrent signal to anyone who might consider interfering with elections, whether through the use of artificial intelligence or otherwise,” Formella said Thursday.
Charges have been filed in Rockingham, Grafton, Merrimack and Belknap Counties. Kramer will be arraigned in all four venues in June.
Kramer admitted to making the calls earlier this year and as Law&Crime reported, he hired a “transient magician” who doubled as a marketing consultant to generate them, Paul Carpenter. Carpenter told NBC in a February interview that he had no idea Kramer would use his creations for “malicious intent.”
“I created the audio used in the robocall. I did not distribute it,” Carpenter told the outlet earlier this year. “I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it. There was no malicious intent. I didn’t know how it was going to be distributed.”
The indictments were first reported by New Hampshire ABC affiliate WMUR on Thursday.
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