Douglas Mackey’s Meme-Related Prison Sentence Halted By Federal Court

Douglas Mackey’s Meme-Related Prison Sentence Halted By Federal Court - Brandon Drey

• Mackey was accused of a “scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote” after a Twitter account he ran under the handle “Ricky Vaughn” posted memes in the lead-up to the election. In October, Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn sentenced Mackey to 7 months in prison, a $15,000 fine, and two years probation.

...Mackey was charged one week after President Joe Biden assumed office and roughly four years after the 2016 election. 

The Justice Department claimed that Mackey had conspired to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” people from exercising their right to vote. Prosecutors said that he and others had “intended variously to provoke, mislead, and, in some cases, deceive voters in the 2016 presidential election” with their posts...

• One image showed a black woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign and said, “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” and “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”...