I think they needed to call a press conference because the messages targeted voters by name and had their address in them. Maddow received 17 complaints and most of those contacted the fbi. The fbi probably had hundreds of complaints, congress was briefed. Ratcliff probably wormed his was in so he could do some spin.
EV opens statewide in Florida on the 24th, but individual counties can and do expand on this. The EV number should increase greatly by Sunday night. It will will be interesting to watch.