AP/File
In this image taken from video, Steve Kramer speaks during an interview in Miami on February 26th.
CNN
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A political consultant who used artificial intelligence to place robocalls impersonating President Joe Biden pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the first six charges he faced in New Hampshire, according to a court spokesman.
Stephen Cramer, who worked on Rep. Dean Phillips’s unlikely Democratic primary challenger to Biden’s campaign, previously acknowledged that he was behind the robocalls, in which a voice sounding like the president’s urged more than 20,000 voters not to vote in the January primary and to “save your vote” for the November election. Phillips’ campaign has denied any involvement in the robocalls and has distanced itself from Cramer.
Kramer appeared in Belknap County Superior Court on Wednesday and was charged with three felony counts of obstructing the vote and three misdemeanor counts of impersonating a candidate.
Cramer, 55, faces a total of 26 criminal charges in several New Hampshire counties where some of the voters who received the robocalls live, according to court documents previously obtained by CNN.
Judge Elizabeth Leonard ordered Kramer held on the $10,000 bail requested by prosecutors.
Kramer’s lawyers argue that he is not a flight risk and stress that he has been responsive throughout the case and voluntarily submitted to being interviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, which fined him $6 million for using spoofing techniques in violation of federal caller ID laws.
“He has been in touch and has expressed a desire to be a part of this case,” his lawyer, Tom Reed, said. “What has been attributed to him in the press throughout this case shows that he is a man who wants to be heard, who wants to make his case in court.”
CNN’s Jack Forrest, Rashad Rose and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
