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Douglas Mackey’s Meme-Related Prison Sentence Halted By Federal Court
Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Brandon Drey.
A federal court on Monday halted the prison sentence for Douglas Mackey, who was convicted earlier this year of election interference for posting memes that mocked Hillary Clinton voters to cast their ballot via text during the 2016 presidential election.
Mackey was accused of a "scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote" after a Twitter account he ran under the handle "Ricky Vaughn" posted memes in the lead-up to the election. In October, Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn sentenced Mackey to 7 months in prison, a $15,000 fine, and two years probation.
However, Judge Omar Williams of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reportedly overruled the appellate court in granting a motion for bond pending appeal, according to Mackey.
"This ruling is huge because it means that the appeals court decided that my appeal presents 'substantial' and 'debatable' issues of law that, if resolved in my favor, will result in my conviction being vacated," Mackey said on X. "The prosecution, on the other hand, argued that my appeal was frivolous and that this was a typical election crime case like any other in U.S. history. This is a very encouraging step towards vindication."
Mackey was charged one week after President Joe Biden assumed office and roughly four years after the 2016 election. The Justice Department claimed that Mackey had conspired to "injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate" people from exercising their right to vote. Prosecutors said that he and others had "intended variously to provoke, mislead, and, in some cases, deceive voters in the 2016 presidential election" with their posts.
The Justice Department said that Mackey had worked with other influential Twitter users between September 2016 and November 2016 to "disseminate fraudulent messages" which persuaded voters for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to cast their ballots via phone or social media.
One image showed a black woman standing in front of an "African Americans for Hillary" sign and said, "Avoid the Line. Vote from Home," and "Text 'Hillary' to 59925."
According to the government, some 4,900 people texted the number, but it's unclear how many people, if anyone, fell for the meme and did not cast the vote they intended to cast; or were merely participating in the joke.
Hillary Clinton reportedly celebrated the arrest, saying Mackey's meme went "from what you would consider free speech ... to running a very deliberate effort to mislead people about where and how to vote. So it went from speech to action meant to subvert the election because thousands of people who they targeted through their algorithms, 'oh I could text my vote for Hillary Clinton.'"
Mackey said if he loses the appeal in the Second Circuit, he intends to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.
Go Back
A federal court on Monday halted the prison sentence for Douglas Mackey, who was convicted earlier this year of election interference for posting memes that mocked Hillary Clinton voters to cast their ballot via text during the 2016 presidential election.
Mackey was accused of a "scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote" after a Twitter account he ran under the handle "Ricky Vaughn" posted memes in the lead-up to the election. In October, Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn sentenced Mackey to 7 months in prison, a $15,000 fine, and two years probation.
However, Judge Omar Williams of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reportedly overruled the appellate court in granting a motion for bond pending appeal, according to Mackey.
"This ruling is huge because it means that the appeals court decided that my appeal presents 'substantial' and 'debatable' issues of law that, if resolved in my favor, will result in my conviction being vacated," Mackey said on X. "The prosecution, on the other hand, argued that my appeal was frivolous and that this was a typical election crime case like any other in U.S. history. This is a very encouraging step towards vindication."
Mackey was charged one week after President Joe Biden assumed office and roughly four years after the 2016 election. The Justice Department claimed that Mackey had conspired to "injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate" people from exercising their right to vote. Prosecutors said that he and others had "intended variously to provoke, mislead, and, in some cases, deceive voters in the 2016 presidential election" with their posts.
The Justice Department said that Mackey had worked with other influential Twitter users between September 2016 and November 2016 to "disseminate fraudulent messages" which persuaded voters for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to cast their ballots via phone or social media.
One image showed a black woman standing in front of an "African Americans for Hillary" sign and said, "Avoid the Line. Vote from Home," and "Text 'Hillary' to 59925."
According to the government, some 4,900 people texted the number, but it's unclear how many people, if anyone, fell for the meme and did not cast the vote they intended to cast; or were merely participating in the joke.
Hillary Clinton reportedly celebrated the arrest, saying Mackey's meme went "from what you would consider free speech ... to running a very deliberate effort to mislead people about where and how to vote. So it went from speech to action meant to subvert the election because thousands of people who they targeted through their algorithms, 'oh I could text my vote for Hillary Clinton.'"
Mackey said if he loses the appeal in the Second Circuit, he intends to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.
Comments
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Big Bob said:
( December 23rd, 2023 @ 10:38 am )
Snowflakes for Christmas! How nice.
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RH: Agreed as a last resort to end this Democratic Socialist weaponization of justice departments. If nothing else, forensically investigate their motives to determine are they worthy to keep their law licenses.
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Win with grace, and lose with dignity. Try it.
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When Trump returns to the presidency, there needs to be a special prosecutor appointed on election interference and some of those who need to be indicted are Jack Smith, Fani Willis, NY's Attorney General, that DA in Manhattan, four Democrat political contributors who sit on the Colorado Supreme Court, and quite a few others.
This guy was convicted of election interference over a satire piece. The others abused judicial power for election interference, a much more serious situation. |
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Big Bob approves of the Two Tiered Justice System of the Non Patriot Left.
By the way, did your read what the Democratic Socialist Judge convicted this individual of? The pranking satire of truly stupid people ... Your fellow like minded constituents. There is NO way I would admit to that, even though, unlike you Big Bob, I do not have those issues of incognitive clarity of purpose. |
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Translation: Another MAGA idiot lost in court.
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In these terrible times of the Corrupt Leftist Judicial system, it is good to know there are splinters of sanity.
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