AI Voice Cloning Robocalls: How the Fake Biden Call Case Ended in Court

The calls that started it

Two days before New Hampshire’s January 23, 2024 presidential primary, voters got a robocall with a fake version of President Biden’s voice. It told them not to vote in the primary. According to the FCC, a company called Voice Broadcasting initiated 9,581 of these calls on January 21, 2024. The caller ID showed the number of a well-known New Hampshire political figure who had nothing to do with them.

Political consultant Steve Kramer later admitted he arranged the calls. The phone company that carried them was Lingo Telecom.

The FCC’s ruling on AI voices

The case moved the FCC to act fast. On February 8, 2024, it released a declaratory ruling (FCC 24-17) holding that the TCPA’s limits on an “artificial or prerecorded voice” cover AI-generated voices. The FCC wrote that this applies to technology that can “either wholly simulate an artificial voice or resemble the voice of a real person taken from an audio clip.” In plain terms: a cloned voice is an artificial voice. Robocalls that use one need the called person’s prior express consent unless there is an emergency or another exemption.

The fines

On August 21, 2024, the FCC announced a settlement with Lingo Telecom. Lingo agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty and follow a compliance plan. The plan requires it to give its highest trust rating to a call only when Lingo itself supplied the caller ID number, and to verify who its customers and upstream carriers are.

Kramer did not respond to the FCC’s proposed fine. On September 26, 2024, the FCC adopted a forfeiture order for $6,000,000 under the Truth in Caller ID Act, 47 U.S.C. 227(e). The order says Kramer used misleading caller ID “with the intent to defraud and cause harm.”

The June 2025 acquittal

New Hampshire prosecutors charged Kramer under state election laws. On June 13, 2025, a jury in Belknap County Superior Court in Laconia found him not guilty on all charges, according to New Hampshire Public Radio. The charges were 11 counts of voter suppression and 11 counts of impersonating a candidate. Kramer testified that he made the calls as a warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Attorney General John Formella said his office would keep working to address “the challenges posed by emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.”

The acquittal was about state election crimes. It did not erase the FCC fine, and it did not decide the civil case.

The November 2025 civil judgment

The League of Women Voters of New Hampshire, the national League and several voters sued Kramer, Lingo Telecom, Life Corporation and Voice Broadcasting in federal court in New Hampshire. According to the plaintiffs’ co-counsel, Free Speech For People, the three companies settled earlier in 2025. On November 21, 2025, the court entered a default judgment against Kramer. It permanently bars him from running deceptive robocall campaigns that intimidate voters and from sending misleading AI-generated political robocalls. NBC Boston reported the judgment awards $7,500 to each of three voters, $22,500 in all. The same report said Kramer called the lawsuit “a publicity stunt that wasted the court’s time” and that he has refused to pay the FCC’s $6 million fine.

What this means for the calls you get

The AI-voice calls most people get are not about elections. They are sales pitches, fake bank or tech support calls, or scams that copy a relative’s voice. The FCC’s February 2024 ruling covers all of these under the TCPA. If an AI voice or a prerecorded message calls your cell phone and you never agreed to it, the call may violate 47 U.S.C. 227(b). The statute allows $500 per call, and up to $1,500 if a court finds the violation willful or knowing. Our page on prerecorded and AI voice calls goes through the consent rules in detail.

The hard part is usually finding who is behind the call. Scammers spoof numbers and use offshore carriers. Some AI-voice robocalls come from people no court could ever collect from. A case is stronger when the call is selling something from a real company you can identify, such as auto warranty sales calls.

A family-emergency call in a loved one’s voice is a different kind of problem. That is fraud, not just a TCPA violation. Hang up and call the person back on a number you already have. Report it at our robocall reporting page, which lists where to file complaints.

What to do if an AI voice calls you

Let unknown numbers go to voicemail, and save any message left. A recording is the best proof that a voice was artificial or prerecorded. Write down the caller ID, the time, and any company name or callback number the voice gave. Do not press buttons to “speak to a representative” unless you want to learn the seller’s name, and if you do, write it down. Then check whether you ever agreed to calls from that company. If you did not, and the calls keep coming, a lawyer can tell you whether the caller can be identified and sued.