The New Hampshire attorney general said on Tuesday that his office, alongside federal officials and other state attorneys general, had identified the company behind robocalls last month that used an impersonation of President Biden’s voice to urge Democrats not to vote in the state’s primary.
The attorney general, John M. Formella, said that the calls had originated with Life Corporation, a Texas-based company owned by Walter Monk. Mr. Formella noted that the calls were routed through a provider called Lingo Telecom.
“We will not tolerate any action that seeks to undermine the integrity of our elections and our democratic process,” Mr. Formella said in a news conference. “The message to any person or company who would attempt to engage in these activities is clear and it’s simple: Don’t try it.”
Mr. Monk, Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to a New York Times review of legal and campaign finance records, a subsidiary of Life Corporation called Voice Broadcasting Corp., which identifies Mr. Monk as its founder on its website, has received numerous payments from the Republican Party’s state committee in Delaware, but also payments from congressional candidates in both parties.
Mr. Formella’s office has opened a criminal investigation, sent Life Corporation a cease-and-desist letter, and sent both Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom subpoenas and notices to preserve documents, he said. The letter, a copy of which his office provided to The New York Times, accuses Life Corporation of violating a New Hampshire law that prohibits efforts to “prevent or deter” someone from voting.
The robocalls told New Hampshire residents — using a voice that was most likely generated by artificial intelligence to sound like Mr. Biden’s — that they should not participate in the state’s primary on Jan. 23 because “your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” Voting in a primary does not prevent anyone from casting a ballot in the general election.
The caller ID was falsified to make it look as if the calls came from Kathleen Sullivan, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, who filed a complaint with the state’s attorney general.
Mr. Formella, in the news conference, also said that the Federal Communications Commission had issued a cease-and-desist letter to Lingo Telecom, which an F.C.C. spokesman confirmed, and that the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, a coalition of state attorneys general, had sent a warning letter and was “taking other steps” for potential civil litigation.
He said he wanted to “assure the public that we take this seriously and that this is one of our most important priorities,” and to “send a strong message of deterrence to any person or entity who would attempt to undermine our elections through A.I. or other means.”
A phone number listed for Life Corporation went directly to voice mail on Tuesday, and a message left there was not immediately returned. Mr. Monk did not immediately respond to attempts to reach him through email and a phone call. A message left at a number listed for Lingo Telecom also was not immediately returned, and neither was an email to the company’s main informational address.
Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, said the campaign was grateful for the New Hampshire attorney general’s actions. “Disinformation aimed at suppressing voting and deliberately undermining free and fair elections is an unacceptable threat,” she said.
Some disinformation experts worry that the robocalls in New Hampshire were an early example of a tactic that will become more common with the rise of artificial intelligence, which makes it increasingly easy to create fake audio or videos that convincingly imitate public figures.
Just last week, the F.C.C. chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, proposed that the agency formally designate A.I.-generated voices as “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which would make it illegal to use them in robocalls.
Ken Bensinger contributed reporting, and Susan Campbell Beachy contributed research.