Prosecutors argued that ‘Ricky Vaughn’ interfered with the 2016 election by making memes about voting for Hillary Clinton by text.
A Trump supporter who shared images claiming that voters could cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton by text in 2016 has been convicted of voter suppression. Douglass Mackey, who went by the pseudonym ‘Ricky Vaughn,’ faces up to ten years in prison.
In the runup to the election, Mackey made a series of posts imitating campaign messages from the Clinton team. One featured an African-American woman – a demographic that overwhelmingly votes Democrat – and the text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.” A similar post featuring a Hispanic woman and instructions in Spanish was shared by Mackey around this time.
Americans cannot vote by text, but prosecutors said that at least 4,900 numbers texted “Hillary” to 59925.
A jury in New York on Friday found Mackey guilty of Conspiracy Against Rights, after the government argued that these posts prevented people from “exercising their sacred right to vote,” according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
The case against Mackey was ridiculed by prominent conservatives, with Fox News host Tucker Carlson accusing the Biden administration of prosecuting the 33-year-old because his “online mockery…hurt their feelings.” Carlson described the prosecution of Mackey as an “assault on free speech and human rights,” pointing out that none of the 4,900 people who allegedly tried to vote from home told the court that they could not remember doing so, and the government’s star witness against Mackey was an FBI informant in an online chatroom with the defendant, who could not be questioned in court.
“The only people who should be charged in this situation [are] the people who were dumb enough to try to vote by text message,” conservative activist Robby Starbuck said at the time of Mackey’s arrest in 2021.
Mackey is due back before the court in August for sentencing, and faces up to ten years in prison. His lawyers said that they plan to appeal the guilty verdict.
Ricky Vaughn Convicted for Hilarious Meme, Could be Facing 10 Years in Prison, Andrew Anglin writes:
On the same day Donald Trump was indicted, they convicted a guy for posting a meme.
This country is spiraling out of control.
This is friggin’ outrageous.
Right-wing Twitter troll Douglass Mackey, better known by the handle “Ricky Vaughn,” has been convicted by a federal jury of interfering in the 2016 election.
“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” the Eastern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the vote.”
In a long-awaited reckoning on election misinformation, the Department of Justice readily agreed that most of Mackey’s antics before the election were protected First Amendment speech. He created memes of fake endorsements of then-candidate Donald Trump by celebrities like Lana del Ray, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, usually sporting “MAGA” hats. Prosecutors say, however, that Mackey crossed the line when he posted images encouraging Hillary Clinton voters, especially Black women, to “Avoid the line” of polling stations by texting the word “Hillary” to a five-digit number.
Giving the fake promo a deceptive veneer of legalese, the fine print read: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by Hillary For President 2016.”
That phone number led to a real line, and the thousands who followed the instructions did not immediately receive error messages.
Shortly after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Mackey’s case, claiming this wasn’t free speech but election interference.
On Friday, a federal jury agreed.
“Ricky Vaughn” took his name as the fictional Cleveland Indians pitcher played by Charlie Sheen in the movie “Major League.” In Mackey’s profile picture, Sheen wears a red “MAGA” hat, and anti-hate watchdogs noted that much of the content on the feed mainstreamed white supremacist ideas. One post included an antisemitic image of an octopus encircling the globe, with a Star of David over the creature’s head.
At this point, no one is safe from this government.
They’re treating the population like they treat the rest of the country: you’re a subject, a slave, and they can do whatever they want to you.
I’ve not said this often, but at this point, I’m going to tell you: if you can get out of the United States, you absolutely should. If you’re doxed online, or if you think you could be doxed, you should have already left.
https://twitter.com/WorldWarWang/status/1641903359216214024
With stuff like “memes are voter suppression” and “paying off a hooker is a campaign expense,” prosecutors are getting extremely creative, and this is just going to get more retarded.
They don’t want people to question the 2024 election. They want to make people afraid to say anything against this government, as it looses its place on the world stage and becomes more and more unstable, socially and economically. They especially don’t want you questioning the wars they have planned.
Things have gotten very extreme under Joe Biden, what with the forced child transsexualism and the attempts to start a world war. It’s just going to keep getting worse until the country collapses, Andrew Anglin writes.