Magician Paul Carpenter has made a name for himself for holding world records in fork bending and straitjacket escapes, not to mention publicity stunts such as wearing only a fig leaf in NYC’s Times Square.
But after he was paid to create deepfake audio of President Joe Biden that was used for a robocall during the New Hampshire primaries, which as NBC News reports now has sparked a federal investigation, he’s found himself in a bind from which even Houdini would be hard pressed to escape.
“The only thing missing from the political circus is a magician and here I am,” Carpenter told NBC News.
Alakazam!
The scheme unfolded in January when Steve Kramer, a longtime political consultant working for rival presidential candidate Dean Phillips, approached Carpenter and hired to him use AI tools to make deepfake audio of Biden telling Democratic voters not to cast a ballot in the New Hampshire presidential primary.
Carpenter, who was paid $150 for the AI deepfake audio, confirmed how the scheme went down — and Kramer’s involvement — by sharing documentation with NBC including Venmo transactions, text messages, and call logs.
“I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it,” said Carpenter, who also told NBC that he believes in various conspiracy theories and is suspicious of the Moon landing. “There was no malicious intent. I didn’t know how it was going to be distributed.”
The deepfake Biden audio ended up calling 5,000 to 25,000 New Hampshire voters, according to law enforcement.
Spider Web
Operatives of the Dean Phillips campaign denounced Kramer’s actions and distanced themselves from the political consultant, who has worked in the past for eccentric rapper and producer Kanye West’s failed 2020 presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, there’s an ongoing state and federal investigation on the deepfake Biden audio that has already implicated a Texas-based telemarketing business that sent out the calls. Investigators are trying to determine if the calls constitute voter suppression and if they also broke laws on telecom fraud and abuse.
As for the magician, Carpenter isn’t leaving things to chance; he says he found a pro-bono attorney on Reddit to represent him.
