Did Trump just violate a federal law to avoid admitting he was wrong about Hurricane Dorian striking Alabama?

President Donald Trump on Wednesday delivered an update on his administration's response to Hurricane Dorian in which he used a map that was altered to back up the president's earlier false claim about the storm striking Alabama.

As seen in the photo above, Trump seems to have used a black sharpie to extend the radius of Hurricane Dorian's impact to include Alabama.

Trump earlier this week falsely claimed that forecasts showed Dorian would be slamming into Alabama, which forced the National Weather Service to put out a statement to reassure Alabama residents that they were not in danger of being hit.

Trump has steadfastly refused to admit he was incorrect, however, which is presumably what led to the altered hurricane forecast map that he presented in his latest update.

However, journalists Dennis Mersereau and Jonathan Katz both believe that the president violated federal law just to avoid admitting he was wrong about the storm.

Specifically, the two journalists point to 18 U.S. Code § 2074, which states that "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."