• President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to have altered an official graphic of Hurricane Dorian’s trajectory to include part of Alabama to validate his false claim that the state could be affected.
  • The National Hurricane Center did not include Alabama in its forecast of the storm’s path, and some observers pointed out 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 part of the US Code 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an update on the storm on Wednesday, Trump asked a staffer to give him an enlarged version of a map, which was an outdated graphic of the hurricane’s path.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, adding, “It was going to be hitting directly, and that would’ve affected a lot of other states.”

But the map had been altered: A semicircle of black ink extended the farthest reaches of 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 federal law, 18 US Code § 2074.

Read more: Trump said he skipped a diplomatic trip to monitor Hurricane Dorian. Then he spent the weekend golfing.

"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 whether anyone has been prosecuted under this law in the past.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about who had altered the official NWS forecast or why they had done so.

Trump first falsely suggested over the weekend that Alabama was in the hurricane's path, tweeting that "in addition to Florida - South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated."

The National Weather Service's office in Birmingham rebuked the president minutes later: "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 on 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,'" he added. "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!"