Trump may have broken federal law by altering Hurricane Dorian's path on a map to validate his false claim that it could hit Alabama
- President Donald Trump appears to have altered an official graphic of Hurricane Dorian's trajectory by extending its path to include part of Alabama, in an apparent effort to validate his false claim that the state could be impacted.
- The National Hurricane Center did not include Alabama in its forecast, and some observers pointed out on Wednesday that Trump's altered map may have violated federal law.
- "Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both," the relevant statute reads.
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President Donald Trump may have broken federal law by altering a map from the National Hurricane Center to lend credence to his false claim over the weekend that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian.
While giving an update on the storm, Trump asked a staffer to hold up a map, which was an outdated version of the hurricane's original path. The storm's trajectory was outlined in white and encompassed most of Florida and part of Georgia, as well as the surrounding water.
"Our original chart was that it was going to be hitting Florida directly," Trump said. "It was going to be hitting directly and that would've affected a lot of other states."
But the map had been altered: a semi-circle of black ink extended the farthese reaches of Hurricane Dorian's impact cone beyond Florida and into Alabama.
The National Hurricane Center did not include Alabama in its forecast, and some observers pointed out on Wednesday that Trump's altered map may have violated the law.
"Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both," the statute reads.
It's unclear if anyone has been prosecuted under this law in the past.
Trump first falsely suggested Alabama was in the hurricane's path over the weekend, tweeting, "In addition to Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated."
The NHC rebuked the president minutes later, tweeting, "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east."
But Trump refused to back down from his claim, attacking ABC News' White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, who reported Sunday that Trump had "misstated the storm's possible trajectory."
"I suggested yesterday at FEMA that, along with Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, even Alabama could possibly come into play, which WAS true," the president tweeted on Monday.
"They made a big deal about this when in fact, under certain original scenarios, it was in fact correct that Alabama could have received some 'hurt.' Always good to be prepared! But the Fake News is only interested in demeaning and belittling. Didn't play my whole sentence or statement. Bad people!"