CONCORD, N.H. – A political consultant who sent voters artificial intelligence-generated robocalls mimicking former President Joe Biden last year went on trial Thursday in New Hampshire, where jurors are being asked to consider not just his guilt or innocence but whether the state actually held its first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
“This case is about a brazen attack on the integrity of the 2024 New Hampshire presidential primary election,” Assistant Attorney General Brendan O'Donnell said in opening statements in Belknap County Superior Court.
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Steven Kramer, who faces decades in prison if convicted of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate, has admitted orchestrating a message sent to thousands of voters two days before the Jan. 23, 2024, primary. The message played an AI-generated voice similar to the Democratic president’s that used his catchphrase “What a bunch of malarkey” and, as prosecutors allege, suggested that voting in the primary would preclude voters from casting ballots in November.
“It’s important that you save your vote for the November election,” voters were told. “Your votes make a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”
Kramer, who owns a firm specializing in get-out-the-vote projects, has said he wasn’t trying to influence the election but rather wanted to send a wake-up call about the potential dangers of AI when he paid a New Orleans magician $150 to create the recording.
“Maybe I’m a villain today, but I think in the end we get a better country and better democracy because of what I’ve done, deliberately,” Kramer told The Associated Press in February 2024.
Ahead of the trial, prosecutors sought to prevent Kramer from arguing that the primary was a meaningless straw poll because it wasn’t sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. At Biden’s request, the DNC dislodged New Hampshire from its traditional early spot in the nominating calendar, but later dropped its threat not to seat the state’s national convention delegates. Biden did not put his name on the ballot or campaign there, but won as a write-in.
The state argued such evidence was irrelevant and could confuse jurors, but Judge Elizabeth Leonard denied the motion in March, saying the DNC’s actions and Kramer’s understanding of them were relevant to his motive and intent. She did grant the prosecution’s request that the court accept as fact that the state held its presidential primary election as defined by law on Jan. 23, 2024. Jurors will be informed of that conclusion but won’t be required to accept it.
Defense says the only attack came from the DNC
In his opening statement, defense attorney Thomas Reid said the robocall was Kramer's “opinion and commentary” on the DNC's initial decision to block the state's delegates to the convention.
“That, ladies and gentlemen, was a brazen attack on your primary,” he said, referring to the DNC's actions. “And it wasn't done by Steve Kramer.”
“He didn't see it as a real election, because it wasn't,” Reid said.
Kramer faces 11 felony charges, each punishable by up to seven years in prison, alleging he attempted to prevent or deter someone from voting based on “fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or spurious grounds or information.” The 11 candidate impersonation charges each carry a maximum sentence of a year in jail.
Kramer’s attorney argued that his client didn’t impersonate a candidate because the message didn’t include Biden’s name, and Biden wasn’t a declared candidate in the primary. He also said the robocall message didn't tell anyone not to vote, a point quickly contradicted by the first half dozen witnesses for the prosecution.
“How else would one take it?” said Theodore Bosen, a retired lawyer from Berlin who received the call.
“That was horrific to my sensibilities that anybody would be trying to influence the vote in any election,” he said.
On cross-examination, witnesses all said the calls didn't deter them from voting, and none believed that doing so would preclude them from voting in the general election. They described varying levels of awareness of the DNC’s decision, and some agreed with Kramer’s lawyer that they would want someone to tell them if their vote “wasn’t going to count.”
O'Donnell, the prosecutor, told jurors that Kramer tried to minimize his connection to the calls, including using his father's online banking account to pay the magician and fabricating the name of a “client” when emailing a company involved in sending the calls. And he didn't contact authorities until the magician publicly identified him and authorities had begun tracing the calls to him, O'Donnell said.
“He knew it was wrong and was trying to get away with it,” O'Donnell said.
Trial begins as the national landscape on AI is shifting
Kramer has been fined $6 million by the Federal Communications Commission, but it's unclear whether he has paid it. The FCC did not respond to a request for comment earlier this week.
The agency was developing AI-related rules when Donald Trump won the presidency, but has since shown signs of a possible shift toward loosening regulations. And though many states have enacted legislation regulating AI deepfakes in political campaigns, House Republicans in Congress recently added a clause to their signature tax bill that would ban states and localities from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.