Posted on 10/18/2023 11:26:15 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Douglass Mackey, who ran a Twitter account with over 58,000 followers, was sentenced to seven months in prison Wednesday for a meme he shared on social media during the 2016 election.
Mackey was convicted by a jury in March of conspiring to deprive others of their right to vote, which carried a potential sentence of up to 10 years. The meme that led to his conviction was a fake flier encouraging Clinton supporters to vote from home via text message.
“Avoid the line. Vote from home,” it stated. “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925. Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.”
Small text at the bottom of the flier notes that voting by text is “not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii.” (RELATED: Anti-Hillary Election ‘Meme’ Case Could Open The Floodgates To More Gov’t Censorship, Legal Experts Warn)
Prosecutors said that Mackey also belonged to private Twitter direct-message groups where he “coordinated” dissemination of misinformation “intended variously to provoke, mislead, and, in some cases, deceive voters in the 2016 presidential election” with others, according to the sentencing memo.
“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,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said after Mackey’s conviction in March. “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.”
First Amendment experts raised concerns earlier this year that the law used to convict Mackey could also be used to target any allegedly false statements about political or election related issues.
“It criminalizes conspiring to ‘injure’ or ‘oppress’ someone in the exercise of any constitutional right,” Aaron Terr, director of Public Advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in April. “If that vague language covers speech that deceives people into voting improperly, it raises the troubling possibility of the government also applying it to allegedly false statements about political issues or candidates that discourage people from voting, not just misrepresentations about the logistics of exercising the franchise.”
There used to be
I wonder how many stupid gullible idiots actually fell for that silly meme?
That was in the time BB.
Before Brandon.
But multiple mail in ballots to the same address is OK.
Mail in ballots with no signature, no problem.
Dead people voting, no problem.
Inaccurate meme meant as a parody....problem.
NY again.
Mail in ballots are voting from home.
And yet, BLM, Antifa, the FBI/DOJ/DNC, the MSM, etc. conspired many many times over to decieve and deprive others of their right to vote.
When do these US enemies get their prison time?
The prosecutors should be made to prove the tweet successfully deceived actual humans in large enough numbers to matter.
Otherwise this is just prosecutorial persecution and intimidation.
Can this be appealed?
The Republic is dead
This charge and sentence looks prima facia unconstitutional.
This individual was not found guilty by a jury of his peers. Not in any way, shape, or form. A jury of his peers would have exonerated him. This was a jury of vindictive commies and leftists (but I repeat myself) who have no sense of humor nor any humility.
I’ve seen/heard many times in the past “Republicans vote on Tuesday, Demorcats on Wednesday” or visa-versa
Never heard of anyone getting in trouble over it.
Convicted of being a Trump supporter.
rats literally stealing elections is ok though
We’re talking Biden voters here. If you look a each of their phones, I’m sure 59925 is saved as a favorite.
NY again.
No Yucks
Remember when fliers were MAILED out to Bush supporters before Bush V Gore with the wrong election date on them?
No one?
Hhmmm... Seems awfully selective in its enforcement. Again...
Thank goodness thee isn’t a law against being stupid or we’d have to incarcerate millions of Biden and Hillary supporters.
How many millions of fraudulent mail-in ballots did SleepyJ receive?
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