New Orleans magician: Biden's voice on NH robocall was created by me

Feb. 24—CONCORD — A New Orleans magician told NBC News that a former consultant to Dean Phillips's presidential campaign paid him $150 to create an impersonation of President Joe Biden's voice used on an illegal robocall urging Democrats not to vote in New Hampshire's presidential primary last month.

Paul Carpenter said that political consultant Steve Kramer, reached out and asked him to create an imitation of Biden's voice.

Carpenter told NBC he had no idea his work, which used artificial intelligence, would wind up at the center of a multistate criminal probe led by New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella.

"I created the audio used in the robocall. I did not distribute it," Carpenter said. "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."

Steve Kramer was paid $259,946 by Phillips's campaign in December and January to help the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate get on the ballot in New York and Pennsylvania. The campaign told NBC that this work included production and distribution of a robocall that used Phillips' voice.

The Phillips campaign denied any knowledge about the Biden robocall and said Kramer no longer works for the candidate.

"If it is true that Mr. Kramer had any involvement in the creation of deepfake robocalls, he did so of his own volition which had nothing to do with our campaign," Phillips's press secretary Katie Dolan said in a statement.

"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 magician said he went public in part to warn people how easy it is to use AI to fool the public; he said it cost him a $1 to produce the audio.

Formella said the robocalls violated the state voter suppression law, and he has asked the Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies if the robocalls violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; the Truth in Caller ID Act; and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act.

A few weeks ago, Formella named two Texas companies and a CEO as initial targets of his office's criminal investigation. Neither Carpenter nor Kramer had been mentioned by law enforcement officials before now, though Formella said he would not be "surprised" if other individuals or companies became targets of the probe.

"We have no comment (or) new public updates to provide at this time. Our investigation remains active and ongoing," said Michael Garrity, communications director for the state Department of Justice.

Democratic boss: Punish 'em

Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said state and federal officials need to send a strong message.

"The punishment to all involved must be of such a level that no one ever does it again," Buckley said.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Biden presidential campaign on Friday condemned the call and cited it as an example of an emerging threat.

"Our campaign is hyper vigilant about the urgent threat (that) disinformation aimed at suppressing voting and deliberately undermining free and fair elections poses to our democracy," said Liz Purdy, a senior adviser for the Biden-Harris campaign in New Hampshire. "We support efforts, including by New Hampshire law enforcement, to hold those who want to disrupt our democratic elections accountable."

On Jan. 22, when NBC News reported on the fake Biden robocall, Steve Kramer texted Carpenter a link to that story adding, "Shhhhhhh," to which Carpenter replied, "GTFOOH," a vulgar text abbreviation.

NBC said screenshots of call logs showed numerous back-and-forth calls between Steve Kramer and Carpenter over the next several hours. Carpenter says he complied with Steve Kramer's request to delete their entire email correspondence, which included scripts for the fake Biden robocall.

Last year, Carpenter was paid by Kramer to create a voice impersonation of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., which he said may have been used for robopolls of presidential primary voters in that state.

Three days before New Hampshire's primary, Kramer sent him a script for the deepfake Biden robocall, Carpenter said.

The robocall failed miserably.

Biden received a record number of write-in votes, and Democratic primary turnout exceeded Scanlan's estimate by more than 30,000 votes.

klandrigan@unionleader.com