Man charged with voter suppression over AI-generated, Biden robocalls before NH primary

CONCORD — Steven Kramer, 54, of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been indicted on charges of felony voter suppression and misdemeanor impersonation of a candidate related to robocalls impersonating President Joe Biden two days before the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary, the attorney general's office announced Thursday.

On Jan. 22, the attorney general's office opened an investigation into reports of thousands of New Hampshire residents receiving a robocall message asking them to “save [their] vote for the November election” and stating “[y]our vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” the AG's office said in a press release. The voice in the recorded message appeared to have been artificially generated to sound like Biden's voice. The message additionally appeared to have been “spoofed” to falsely show it had been sent by the treasurer of a political committee that had been supporting the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary write-in efforts for Biden.

Kramer has been charged with 13 felony counts of voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonation of a candidate, the attorney general's office said. The charges are spread across four counties based on the residence of 13 New Hampshire residents who received the Biden robocalls: Rockingham County (five counts of violating each statute); Belknap County (three counts); Grafton County (three counts); Merrimack County (two counts).

“New Hampshire remains committed to ensuring that our elections remain free from unlawful interference and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing," Formella said in the press release. "The Federal Communications Commission will separately be announcing an enforcement action against Mr. Kramer based on violations of federal law. I am pleased to see that our federal partners are similarly committed to protecting consumers and voters from harmful robocalls and voter suppression. 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.”

The Federal Communications Commission, in a related press release, alleged: "Political consultant Steve Kramer was responsible for the calls and had engaged Voice Broadcasting Corp., which used the services of Life Corp. to transmit calls through voice service provider Lingo Telecom. The Commission brought a separate enforcement action today against Kramer for the apparent spoofing violations. Lingo Telecom, as the originating provider for the calls, faces a $2 million proposed fine for apparently violating the FCC’s caller ID authentication rules."

In a February interview with NBC News, Kramer took credit for the robocalls, suggesting he did it to sound the alarm about the danger of AI in politics.

While Kramer was working for rival Democratic primary candidate U.S. Rep Dean Phillips of Minnesota, he told NBC the idea for the robocalls was entirely his own. Phillips strongly denounced the calls when they came to light.

The charges and allegations against Kramer are merely accusations, the attorney general's office said, adding he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Man charged in NH with voter suppression over Biden robocalls