BROOKLYN, New York (LifeSiteNews) — A day after a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict former U.S. President Donald Trump on criminal charges, a Trump-supporter who created several memes in 2016 encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to cast their votes via text message, was convicted of election interference. The memester, whose attorneys say posted the memes satirically, now faces up to 10 years in prison.
After a week’s deliberation, a Brooklyn federal jury convicted 33-year-old Florida resident Douglass Mackey, also known as “Ricky Vaughn,” of committing a Conspiracy Against Rights on Friday for creating and sharing the memes ahead of Election Day 2016.
Mackey will be sentenced on August 16 and could spend up to 10 years behind bars.
Friday’s conviction came after Mackey was arrested by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice on January 27, 2021, for allegedly using social media to “Deprive Individuals of Their Right to Vote” in the general election with his memes.
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According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Mackey created several images made to look like campaign ads for Hillary Clinton, encouraging Democrats to “vote” by text message (a legal impossibility).
One image shared on November 1, 2016 (around which time Mackey was reportedly tweeting about reducing the “black turnout” in the election) depicted a black woman with an “African Americans for Hillary” sign behind her and the caption: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home.” Readers were also told to “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” and “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history,” along with typical campaign ad-style fine print and the Clinton-associated hashtag: “#ImWithHer.”
Another image shared the same day featured a caption in Spanish and showed a woman typing on her cell phone along with the logo for the Clinton campaign and the “#ImWithHer” hashtag.
According to the DOJ, “at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted ‘Hillary’ or some derivative to the 59925 text number” after Mackey and his “co-conspirators” shared the images on social media.
Mackey reportedly boasted about 58,000 followers on Twitter in 2016. An MIT Media Lab analysis in February 2016 determined that Mackey was “the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Presidential Election,” according to the DOJ.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Mackey’s meme-making “crossed the line into criminality.”
“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,” Peace said, according to the DOJ press release. “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.”
On Friday, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy connected Mackey’s conviction with the indictment of Trump, arguing that the U.S. “is becoming unrecognizable.”
“Last night, I said if they can do it to Trump, they can do it to anyone,” he said on Twitter. “Just today, Douglass Mackey was convicted & could be sentenced up to *10 years in prison* for creating satirical internet memes that made fun of Hillary Clinton supporters by telling them they could vote via text message or social media.”
“This is a flagrant assault on the First Amendment. Our country is becoming unrecognizable to anyone who understands our Constitution & we don’t have long to fix it,” Ramaswamy said.
Last night I said if they can do it to Trump, they can do it to anyone. Just today, Douglass Mackey was convicted & could be sentenced up to *10 years in prison* for creating satirical internet memes that made fun of Hillary Clinton supporters by telling them they could vote via… pic.twitter.com/3kXim6uAm6
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) April 1, 2023
Fox News host Tucker Carlson called Mackey’s conviction a “turning point” in the U.S.
“Hillary Clinton apparently is OK with sending a man to prison for 10 years for making fun of her,” Carlson said. “If you ever wondered whether she’s a cruel and horrible person, the answer is yes she is.”
Conservatives on Twitter have also pointed out that Mackey’s election joke was not unique.
Comedienne Kristina Wong had posted a similar video and tweet urging Trump voters to vote by text or show up to the polls on Wednesday, November 9 (the day after Election Day).
Unlike Mackey, however, Wong has been charged with no crime.
Hey 🇺🇸Trump Supporters🇺🇸! Skip poll lines at #Election2016 and TEXT in your vote! Text votes are legit. Or vote tomorrow on Super Wednesday! pic.twitter.com/ES34HV0yad
— Kristina Wong ❄️ (@mskristinawong) November 8, 2016
In addition, one study found that as many 71% of Democrats may have voted differently in 2020 if they had known that the Hunter Biden laptop story, broken by the New York Post but subsequently throttled by social media companies, had been real.
Social media companies, however, have not been charged with election interference for stifling the story’s reach.
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Last summer, long before Trump was raided by the FBI and indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, Carlson had spoken about Mackey’s arrest within the context of a wave of federal action and raids against ideological opponents of powerful Democrats, warning that “abuses of power escalate.”
“Someone needs to stop this before it gets even crazier,” he said at the time.