Mackey was convicted of election interference and faces up to ten years in prison, all because of a meme he tweeted during the 2016 election.
Back during the wild and woolly days of that campaign, according to a Friday press release from the "Justice" Department, Mackey, under the name Ricky Vaughn, "Established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Presidential Election." The Justice for Democrats Department didn't bother to explain exactly what it means to have held a position so illustrious as that of the 107th most important influencer of the 2016 presidential election.
These are actually important questions because on Friday, Mackey was convicted "By a federal jury in Brooklyn of the charge of Conspiracy Against Rights stemming from his scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote." That's what he faces ten years in prison for doing.
While the language the Department Formerly Associated with Justice used sounds quite weighty and conjures up images of Mackey meeting in dark rooms with other sinister figures to plot ways to sabotage voting machines or prevent people from being able to enter polling places, what they're really talking about is a meme.
Vaughn tweeted a photo of what looked like a Hillary ad, but was actually a parody of a Hillary ad. The caption read: "Avoid the line. Vote from home. Text 'Hillary' to 59925. Vote for Hillary and be a part of history." The Justice Unless You Support Trump Department explained that this was a heinous crime because "Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to 'vote' via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid." Yeah, wow, doggonit, that sounds terrible.
On Nov. 8, 2016, which was election day, Kristina Wong tweeted a video of a Trump supporter with the caption: "Hey Trump Supporters! Skip poll lines at #Election2016 and TEXT in your vote! Text votes are legit. Or vote tomorrow on Super Wednesday!" Not only was Kristina Wong never prosecuted, but her tweet is still live.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace proclaimed, "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 contemporary American Left, one of the most impious and God-hating political movements in the history of the world, loves to affect piety at times like this, but Peace's statement was a particularly nauseating example of this phenomenon.
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