The FCC proposed a $12,910,000 fine against Scott D. Rhodes, a white supremacist who sent more than 6,000 racist robocalls to people in Iowa, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho and Virginia. Rhodes allegedly used "caller ID spoofing in thousands of robocalls that targeted specific communities with the intent to cause harm," according to the FCC.

The New York Times reported that Rhodes runs the website Road to Power and has been accused by civil rights groups of being a white supremacist. The robocalls were steeped in anti-Black, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages and sought to exploit news coverage or elections to instill interracial hatred.

In a statement, the FCC said Rhodes "made unlawful, spoofed robocalls to target a community grappling with the recent murder of a local woman, threaten a journalist and newspaper, and attempt to influence a jury. Additionally, the caller made unlawful, spoofed robocalls related to political campaigns in California, Florida, and Georgia."

In one specific instance, Rhodes reportedly led a sustained, and ultimately damaging, campaign against former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, the state's first Black candidate for governor. 

An audio recording of one of the robocalls which was obtained by The New York Times featured an actor purporting to be Gillum speaking in a minstrel voice saying, "Well hello there. I is Andrew Gillum” as monkey noises and African drums played in the background. The rest of the audio included dozens of offensive statements about Black people, policing and mud huts. 

Gillum lost the Florida election by just one percentage point.

Rhodes also went after Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in 2018 during her election.

"Between October 20 and October 23, 2018, Rhodes apparently made 766 spoofed robocalls to Floridians, targeting Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. Rhodes apparently used an inaccurate caller ID to relay messages falsely claiming to be from Mr. Gillum, using what the Enforcement Bureau characterized as 'a caricature of a black dialect,' with jungle noises in the background," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai.

"Between November 2 and November 3, 2018, Rhodes apparently made 583 spoofed robocalls to Georgians, targeting Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Yet again with an apparently unassigned number, Rhodes relayed a message mimicking Oprah Winfrey, who was in Georgia campaigning with Ms. Abrams around the time of the robocalls," Pai added. 

No criminal charges have been filed against Rhodes but the FCC statement said he violated the Truth in Caller ID Act, which prohibits people from manipulating caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value.

Rhodes has not responded to requests for comment but the FCC said they believed all of these robocalls were "motivated by a belief that these actions would result in media notoriety and accordingly would enable him to increase publicity for his website and personal brand."

The podcast host's robocalls against Gillum and Abrams were only one part of his larger effort to instill hatred. He allegedly led robocall campaigns against Jewish U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein as well as a newspaper publisher in Idaho that identified him. He also used the online robocall system to highlight the deaths of Heather Heyer and Mollie Tibbetts.

"As if this tragedy were not enough, just two days after her funeral, Mollie’s family, friends, and the close-knit community of Brooklyn began to receive a barrage of spoofed robocalls. Preying on the tragedy, the calls contained inflammatory prerecorded messages and a woman’s voice apparently intended to impersonate Mollie Tibbetts saying 'kill them all'—the 'them' referring to illegal aliens from Mexico," Pai said.

"The man apparently behind these robocalls was Scott Rhodes. Between August 28 and August 30, 2018, he apparently made 837 of these robocalls to Iowa consumers. Rhodes apparently used spoofed caller IDs that matched the area code and central office code for Brooklyn to mislead consumers into thinking that they were receiving a local call. Sadly, that is exactly what Mollie’s father thought when he answered Rhodes’s robocall. Family members said that listening to the robocalls caused them to suffer emotional distress and caused Mollie’s stepmother to become physically ill," Pai added.

andrew gillumMollie-TibbettsRacist-RobocallsScott D. RhodesScott-Rhodes