The Democrat political consultant who produced fake robocalls that sounded like President Biden and urged voters not to vote in the New Hampshire primary has been fined millions of dollars by the Federal Communications Commission.
The commission’s assessment Thursday came to $6 million against Steve Kramer. He’s also facing 13 felony charges for violating a state law for using misleading information to persuade someone from voting. And he faces 11 misdemeanor charges for misrepresenting himself as a candidate.
Mr. Kramer, who was hired as a consultant by Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips’ presidential campaign, has admitted to arranging for the robocall that was created with artificial intelligence to sound like Mr. Biden. It was sent to thousands of voters ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 23.
Paul Carpenter, a magician based in New Orleans, claimed in February that he was paid to create the fake robocalls.
“I created the audio in the robocall. I did not distribute it,” Mr. Carpenter said at the time. “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.”
Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Kramer met through a mutual acquaintance, and they shared Mr. Carpenter’s experience with AI.
The Phillips campaign denounced Mr. Kramer’s actions after the primary, in which Mr. Biden won by a landslide. The congressman’s spokeswoman, Katie Dolan, said in a statement that “if it is true that Mr. Kramer has any involvement in the creation of deepfake robocalls, he did so of his own volition, which had nothing to do with our campaign.
“The fundamental notion of our campaign is the importance of competition, choice and democracy. We are disgusted to learn that Mr. Kramer is allegedly behind this call, and if the allegations are true, we absolutely denounce his actions.”
The FCC Thursday also issued a $2 million fine against Lingo Telecom, the company accused of transmitting the calls.
Neither Mr. Kramer nor Lingo Telecom responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
— This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.