Man sentenced to 7 months for political memes – Law Officer

A judge in New York City has sentenced Douglas Mackey, who operated the influential pro-MAGA Twitter account “Ricky Vaughn” in 2016, to seven months behind bars for “election interference.”

Mackey was arrested by the DOJ shortly after Joe Biden took office in 2021. The case brought against him alleged that he interfered in the 2016 election because of a joke tweet telling people to “text their vote” to Hillary Clinton’s campaign line.

Breitbart reported that the legal case against Mackey shortly after his arrest, noting that a leftist comedian posted exactly the same joke in reverse and faced no legal repercussions:

The criminal complaint alleges that “at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers” sent a message with the candidate’s name to the number given, “on or about and before Election Day.”

It does not say whether any of them refrained from casting a real vote.

Neither the complaint nor the FBI’s accompanying press release explains, however, how the government plans to survive a First Amendment challenge.

The law makes it a crime to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right.” It does not specifically say anything about providing false information.

The sentence, handed down by Obama-appointed federal court Judge Ann Donnelly, followed a New York jury conviction of Mackey in March of this year.

As noted by Mackey’s legal team, prosecutors are using similar methods to prosecute Donald Trump and members of his team.