Norms Impact
Political operative who admitted to creating fake Biden robocalls found not guilty
An admitted AI-voice robocall operation urging voters to skip a presidential primary ended in acquittal, exposing how election deception can slip past criminal enforcement while still warping turnout.
Jun 13, 2025
Sources
Summary
A Belknap County Superior Court jury acquitted Steven Kramer on all charges tied to AI-generated robocalls mimicking President Biden that urged New Hampshire voters to skip the 2024 presidential primary. The verdict leaves a gap between emerging election-manipulation tactics and the state’s ability to secure felony convictions under existing voter-suppression and impersonation statutes. In practice, our elections face a proven tool for mass deception that can evade criminal liability even after an admitted operation targeting thousands of homes.
Reality Check
This acquittal signals that large-scale election interference can be admitted, documented, and still escape criminal punishment, leaving our right to cast an informed vote vulnerable to the next cheap, automated deception. On these facts, the conduct is unmistakably abusive and anti-democratic—spoofed calls, a faked identity, and messaging designed to deter participation—but the jury’s verdict shows prosecutors failed to satisfy the elements of New Hampshire’s voter-suppression and candidate-impersonation charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Federal accountability has landed through regulatory enforcement instead: the FCC imposed a $6 million fine on Kramer for spoofing and penalized the carrier with a $1 million settlement, but civil fines do not deliver the deterrent force of criminal law. When election manipulation is punished only after the fact and primarily as a telecom violation, we normalize the idea that our ballots can be targeted at scale with limited legal risk.
Detail
<p>Steven Kramer, a New Orleans-based political operative, was found not guilty by a jury in Belknap County Superior Court in Laconia on charges stemming from robocalls sent to thousands of New Hampshire homes shortly before the 2024 presidential primary.</p><p>Kramer admitted to creating the calls, which used an AI-generated voice resembling President Joe Biden and urged recipients to skip the primary and “save their vote for the November election.” County attorneys filed cases in the months after the calls; those prosecutions were consolidated into one trial. Kramer faced 11 felony counts of voter suppression and 11 counts of impersonating a political candidate.</p><p>Kramer testified that he orchestrated the calls to warn about the dangers of artificial intelligence. A street magician told NBC News in February 2024 that Kramer hired him to create the recording. Kramer previously worked for Dean Phillips’ campaign; the campaign denied involvement and distanced itself from Kramer. In September 2024, the FCC issued a $6 million fine against Kramer, and Lingo Telecom agreed to a $1 million fine related to delivery of the calls.</p>