Posted on 07/09/2025 8:06:10 AM PDT by FreeReign
Douglass Mackey, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration over a meme, has seen his conviction tossed by the Second Circuit Court of appeals. Mackey broke the news on X, saying in all caps "Breaking: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out my conviction for lack of evidence. The case has ben remanded to the district court with orders to immediately dismiss."
Would be interesting to know who was the original judge, and why that judge didn’t consider the lack of proof that Mackey conspired to injure citizens by depriving them of their right to vote, before finding the defendant guilty. These jerks never see consequences for their judicial misconduct.
“...it is such a common joke over the years from all sides.”
Yes, indeed. It’s been going on for many years.
“why would the First Amendment necessarily be in play?”
You are correct. It seems like narrow grounds “conspiring to deprive citizens of their right to vote” rather than broader 1A grounds, but that conspiracy was the case that was brought to trial and tried.
Sentenced to 7 months in federal prison for a meme variation of the age old election joke “Republicans vote on Tuesday, Democrats on Wednesday”.
Everyone involved in his persecution should be fired, and some jailed.
Here is the Court’s ruling:
https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/mackey-2d-circuit-opinion.pdf
Defendant-Appellant Douglass Mackey (“Mackey”) appeals from a
judgment of conviction entered on October 25, 2023 after a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Donnelly, J.). Mackey was convicted of conspiring to injure citizens in the exercise of their right to vote in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241 based on three memes he posted or reposted on Twitter shortly before the 2016 presidential election. These memes falsely suggested that supporters of then-candidate Hillary Clinton could vote by text message. On appeal, Mackey argues, inter alia, that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he knowingly agreed to join the charged conspiracy. We agree.
Accordingly, we REVERSE Mackey’s conviction and REMAND the case to the district court with instructions to enter a judgment of acquittal.
Maybe he can sue the all the members of the committee for violation of rights under color of law.... And Nifong every last one of them. just sayin’
Fun’s fun, but he could be looking at a $120,000 legal bill.
Case thrown out for “for lack of evidence”? NOT on First Amendment violations?
I find that troublesome.
If you read the first part of the court ruling, it states that all parties agree that it was not a crime to post the meme. Biden’s DOJ knew they couldn’t charge on the posting itself, so they charged MacKey with a conspiracy and got the conviction (it was New York, so of course they did). THAT is what the appeals court overturned.
That the appeals court unanimously threw it out for lack of evidence confirms what we all knew already: New York juries are turd-world banana republic entities who don’t need no steenkin’ evidence to convict people who just happen to vote differently than them.
Trump should have pardoned him on day one.
Comedian Kristina Wong created the same joke targeting Trump supporters and was of course was never prosecuted.
I just read the opinion. The appellate court found that the government produced insufficient evidence that Mackey “conspired” with another person. A “conspiracy” is a criminal agreement by 2 or more persons. Basically, the government failed to show proof that Mackey acted in criminal concert with another person to make an attempt to mislead voters. The Court, therefore, did not have to decide the issue whether the memes themselves were First Amendment protected.
I just heard Mackey say that he didn't want a pardon. He wanted to fight the conviction on appeal.
Might be a better way. If 1st amend is the issue, you get tied up in all sorts of pre-trial crappola.
OTOHand, a judge can listen to a pre-trial request from defending attorney to summarily dismiss ‘cause of no evidence. If this is the conclusion, then all future judge’s can point to this ruling and convene a pretrial meeting and ask “So, who has evidence to show me? Uhh, none? OK, dismissed with prejudice.”
This approach short-circuits the usual crappola of accusations and such from commie trash just trying to ruin someone’s life by totally fictitious claims knowing that the poor schlub getting attacked cannot financially support his own defense.
Do not celebrate to soon.
Todays district courts have elevated themselves over the higher courts, even SCOTUS and the President.
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