Democratic operative behind Biden AI robocall says lawsuit won’t ‘get anywhere’ – djohnson

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The Democratic operative behind an AI-generated robocall impersonating President Joe Biden that reached thousands of New Hampshire voters earlier this year said he is cooperating with state and federal authorities and that a lawsuit filed against him is without merit — even as he claimed not to have seen it.

In a phone call with CyberScoop on Monday, Steve Kramer said he was currently in Europe “getting political work done” and he had not seen the lawsuit, filed March 14 by the League of Women Voters. That lawsuit accuses Kramer, Texas political marketing firm Life Corporation and telecommunications carrier Lingo Telecom of engaging in illegal voter suppression under the Voting Rights Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It seeks damages of $500 for each robocall sent to voters in New Hampshire and other states that urged Democrats not to vote in the presidential primaries. 

“I’ve gotten nothing from them, I’ve not been served, I’ve never seen the lawsuit,” he said. 

Kramer repeatedly told CyberScoop that he was unaware of the contents of the lawsuit. However, he also expressed skepticism that the effort would succeed.

“They can go ahead and sue but I’ve got to tell you, they’re not going to get anywhere,” he said. “I know why I did it, I know when I did it, I know how I did it.”

He then questioned the basis under which the lawsuit was brought.

“I don’t even know what they can sue for,” he said. “How can the League of Women Voters sue me when I told Democrats not to vote in the Republican primary? They’re not even allowed to vote in the Republican primary.”

The Biden robocall discouraged Democrats from voting in the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 23, where the incumbent president was competing against primary challenger Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. Kramer was a paid consultant for the Phillips campaign, NBC News reported, and his firm, Get Out The Vote, was paid approximately $269,000 by the Phillips campaign in 2023 and 2024 for ballot access and voter contact services. The Phillips campaign has denied any involvement in the creation of the robocall and said it has since severed ties with Kramer.

While the fake Biden call did not specifically call out the Democratic or Republican primary, it included the lines “we know the value of voting Democratic when our votes count” and “your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” It also spoofed the phone number of a former state Democratic party official running a write-in campaign for Biden in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, giving recipients the impression that the call was coming from the president’s supporters.

Kramer said he was cooperating with the New Hampshire Department of Justice, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and the Federal Communications Commission “to not only satisfy a subpoena but in the future help them to prevent the kind of artificial intelligence that I’ve tried to prevent.”

He also defended his actions, arguing that the creation of the robocall led to substantial national exposure about the dangers of AI-generated deepfakes, spurred regulatory reforms by the FCC and state governments and pushed lawmakers to take the threat of election-related deepfakes more seriously. He reiterated claims made in previous interviews that the robocall cost $500 to produce and generated “$5 million of media exposure.”

“I can’t name any other campaign or any other event that’s happened for $500 that got the [same] type of regulation change, exposure about the issue as well as the ability for legislators to finally be able to talk about it in their state legislatures,” Kramer told CyberScoop.

James Boffetti, New Hampshire’s deputy attorney general, declined to confirm or deny Kramer’s claims, telling CyberScoop that it is department policy not to comment on active investigations.

A Feb. 6 news release from the state Attorney General’s office did provide substantial details on the ongoing investigation, including the alleged involvement of Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom in the scheme.

No charges have been filed thus far in that case, and Kramer was not mentioned or identified in the Feb. 6 release. Asked for an update on the progress of that investigation, Boffetti again declined comment.

Calls to the FCC for comment were not returned.

Kramer’s claims of ignorance about the lawsuit and its contents came as lawyers for the League of Women Voters submitted filings in New Hampshire district court last week that detailed numerous attempts to serve Kramer or his representatives.

According to a sworn statement submitted to the court on April 18, attorneys for the plaintiffs said they have made “diligent and extensive efforts” to serve Kramer and his legal representation with the lawsuit, including seven unsuccessful in-person attempts at listed work and home offices in New York, Louisiana and Florida.

A sworn statement submitted by Kathy Sullivan, the former New Hampshire Democratic official whose phone number was spoofed in the robocall, claims that Kramer called her on March 14 and accused her of being behind the lawsuit. Sullivan is not listed among the plaintiffs.

In that phone conversation, Sullivan said that Kramer told her that he used her name and phone number in the New Hampshire robocall because he thought she would “do the right thing” and alert the press. Sullivan claims Kramer stated that other campaigns had reached out asking him to do “bad things,” something she “understood to mean running similar deepfake and/or spoofed political robocalls that will threaten or deceive voters.”

Before CyberScoop could ask about the alleged call with Sullivan, Kramer hung up, saying he had to go and to check back with him after he returned to the United States on April 30 or May 1. Follow-up questions about the call sent to Kramer by email were not returned.  

Sullivan previously told CyberScoop that she believes Kramer’s claim that he orchestrated the robocall to raise awareness about deepfakes was not genuine and was an attempt to “cover his tracks” after his involvement became public following the Feb. 23 NBC News article.

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