MarvinTheParanoidAndroid
This will all end in tears, I just know it.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2015
𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐨𝐬 on Twitter: "Here's the story of Doug Mackey, the twitte…
archived 14 Mar 2023 00:24:10 UTC
Here's the story of Doug Mackey, the twitter poster who helped Trump win the election in 2016, and is now being persecuted by the Biden DOJ for posting memes. He goes to trial today, and faces ten years in prison. This is the situation, and what it means for you.
Ricky rose to fame as a brilliant twitter personality. At his peak, he was more influential than NBC, CNN and the Colbert Report. He reached and energized millions.
He had a talent for making Hillary Clinton look foolish and for eviscerating journalists. President Trump was elected in part bc of the groundswell he helped mobilize. They never forgot this.
In 2018 he was doxxed and afterwards went to go live a quiet life in Florida away from the spotlight. But the incestuous trifecta of academics, journalists, and government officials that make up the Deep State hadn't forgotten him.
In 2021, mere days after Biden took office, Doug was charged with election interference and arrested by the FBI. They'd been sitting on the case and finally saw their chance to strike.
Remember, for years they had been trying to get Trump with completely false "Russia collusion" allegations. If they couldn't get Trump, they'd get one of his supporters.
He's accused of committing a crime for posting on Twitter. Specifically, the DOJ alleges that he engaged in conspiracy to defraud people of their voting rights by posting a satirical meme.
Bear in mind that this kind of joke around elections is quite common. Here's an example from 2016 that is apparently of no concern to Biden's DOJ.
Kristina Wong ❄️ on Twitter: "Hey 🇺🇸Trump Supporters🇺🇸! Skip poll…
archived 30 Jan 2021 23:14:26 UTC
He's being charged under 18 U.S.C. § 241, a 100-year old law written to prosecute the KKK for violence that has NEVER been extended before to speech. This has chilling implications. The U.S. government is now in the business of deciding what's a lie or what's satire.
As eminent 1A scholar Eugene Volokh explains, there is no limit to how this law could be applied. The law is also not limited to elections, it extends to anyone who 'conspires to deprive someone of their rights.'
This means that if you shared statistics about COVID, or trans surgery for example, in an effort to get a local school to disinvite a public speaker, and law enforcement decided that you lied or knowingly spread "false information," you could be charged and arrested. Imagine!
Many other disgusting overreaches too: the politically motivated timing, the petty and vindictive nature of the persecution, and the use of secret witnesses. The DOJ is bringing a secret witness who has pled guilty and agreed to cooperate. Is this America or Eastern Bloc USSR?
In short, the Biden DOJ is pulling out all the stops in an effort to crush a private citizen simply because he made them look like fools and helped President Trump get elected in 2016. They hate to be embarrassed and would rather shut up anons forever.
You can help Doug in three ways: 1. Donate 2. Write to Congress 3. If you have the connections, bring this matter to the attention of prominent personalities.
You can find more information about how to help below. Includes links for donating, templates for writing to Congress, and a short, easy-to-share summary of his story. These abuses must be stopped now and forever, or free speech on Twitter is dead.
Another disgusting feature. Bruce Reinhardt, the “Epstein judge” who also approved Mar a Lago raid is involved.
You can follow Douglass Mackey directly, and get updates about his case right from him here:
Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference Stemming from Voter Disinformation Campaign
A Florida man was arrested this morning on charges of conspiring with others in advance of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election to use various social media platforms to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.
www.justice.gov
Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference Stemming f…
archived 15 Mar 2023 14:34:27 UTC
Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference Stemming from Voter Disinformation Campaign
Defendant Unlawfully Used Social Media to Deprive Individuals of Their Right to Vote
A Florida man was arrested this morning on charges of conspiring with others in advance of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election to use various social media platforms to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.
Douglass Mackey, aka Ricky Vaughn, 31, of West Palm Beach, was charged by criminal complaint in the Eastern District of New York. He was taken into custody this morning in West Palm Beach and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart of the Southern District of Florida.
“According to the allegations in the complaint, the defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one the of most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote,” said Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This complaint underscores the department’s commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who would undermine citizens’ voting rights.”
“There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote,” said Seth D. DuCharme, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “With Mackey’s arrest, we serve notice that those who would subvert the democratic process in this manner cannot rely on the cloak of Internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes. They will be investigated, caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
“Protecting every American citizen’s right to cast a legitimate vote is a key to the success of our republic,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. “What Mackey allegedly did to interfere with this process – by soliciting voters to cast their ballots via text – amounted to nothing short of vote theft. It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public’s trust in our electoral processes. He may have been a powerful social media influencer at the time, but a quick Internet search of his name today will reveal an entirely different story.”
The complaint alleges that in 2016, Mackey 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 Election, ranking his account above outlets and individuals such as NBC News (#114), Stephen Colbert (#119) and Newt Gingrich (#141).
As alleged in the complaint, between September 2016 and November 2016, in the lead up to the Nov. 8, 2016, U.S. Presidential Election, Mackey conspired with others to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages designed to encourage supporters of one of the presidential candidates (the “Candidate”) to “vote” via text message or social media, a legally invalid method of voting.
For example, on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for [the Candidate]” sign. The image included the following text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[Candidate’s first name]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [the Candidate] and be a part of history.” The fine print at the bottom of the image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by [Candidate] for President 2016.”
The tweet included the typed hashtags “#Go [Candidate]” and another slogan frequently used by the Candidate. On or about and before Election Day 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “[Candidate’s first name]” or some derivative to the 59925 text number, which was used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by the defendant and his co-conspirators.
The charges in the complaint are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erik Paulsen and Nathan Reilly of the Eastern District of New York, and Trial Attorney James Mann of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.
Federal Court Says Election Disinformation Isn’t Protected Speech
This is some bad looking precedent here. Everyone is right to be concerned about election disinformation, especially if that disinformation is intended to keep certain people from voting, but histo…
www.techdirt.com
Federal Court Says Election Disinformation Isn’t Protected Speech | T…
archived 18 Mar 2023 08:21:42 UTC
Federal Court Says Election Disinformation Isn’t Protected Speech
This is some bad looking precedent here. Everyone is right to be concerned about election disinformation, especially if that disinformation is intended to keep certain people from voting, but historically, it has been public officials facing criminal charges for voter suppression, rather than toxic Twitter trolls.And Douglas Mackey, known as “Ricky Vaughn” on Twitter, is definitely toxic. He and his followers created social media campaigns during the 2016 election that attempted to dupe people (Hillary Clinton voters, specifically) into casting their votes via text message or social media posts, hoping to steer them away from venues where votes could actually be cast.
For that, Mackey was arrested and charged by the DOJ. Even the DOJ admitted this prosecution was novel: the first time a person had been criminally charged with election interference for trolling people on social media. According to the DOJ, Mackey’s efforts resulted in “4,900 unique phone numbers” attempting to vote by phone.
That’s pretty disturbing, if true. But is it actually a criminal act? Misleading people during election season is the national pastime, one often enjoyed by political candidates. The federal court handling this case says that something often considered to be nothing more than noxious speech — something often successfully countered with more speech — is actually a criminal act. (h/t Paul Seamus Ryan)
The decision [PDF] goes through a lot of legal paperwork before arriving at this conclusion, starting out with the question of venue. The court says that because tweets can be received nearly anywhere, the venue is proper, even though Mackey resides in the Southern District of New York, rather than in the Eastern District, where the prosecution is being brought.
The court then handles Mackey’s argument that he wasn’t “fairly warned” that attempting to deter voting by deception was a criminal act, something that violates his due process rights. It’s an important question to raise, since it deals with criminal intent — something that’s essential to criminal conspiracy charges. Here’s where things start looking pretty dicey. The court cites plenty of precedent, but none appears to be on point. Almost all of it deals with politicians, election officials, and others directly involved in tallying votes engaging in criminal acts of voter suppression. There are also several cases where voters engaged in voter fraud by stuffing ballot boxes, forging ballots, and “incorrectly filling out ballots on behalf of illiterate voters.” Almost every case deals with direct interaction with the ballot system, rather than someone just telling voters something that wasn’t true.
This is all fine, says the court. The law can be read to cover Mackey’s acts, and that’s how it’s going to be read by this court.
Maybe the court feels this way, but it’s unclear whether Mackey truly thought he was engaging in a criminal act. Perhaps he might not have engaged in this expansive trolling effort if he thought it was actually a crime, rather than just a supremely shitty thing to do. Plenty of voter-related trolling occurred during the run-up to the election, with social media users deliberately misinforming others about voting dates, the legitimacy of absentee ballots, locations of ballot drop-off points, etc. But it appears Mackey (and some co-conspirators) are the only ones to be criminally charged for engaging in this heinous form of speech.
Mackey’s First Amendment challenge to the application of the law in this way is also dismissed by the federal court. The court says that the First Amendment does protect political speech, but this speech wasn’t political. It was deception intended to deter certain people from casting their votes.
The courts sums things up by saying it’s a good law (even though it’s never been used this way before) and it’s fine that the government is using it this way, even though it had other ways of countering Mackey’s deceptive speech.
Yes, it’s true that counter speech during the “days and hours immediately preceding an election” would be of limited utility. But the standard isn’t what works best for the government. An arrest that took place more than four years after the alleged crime was committed isn’t exactly a timely response either. And it’s unlikely to have much of an effect on election disinformation unless the government is willing to treat everyone who engages in this form of speech the same way. Selective prosecution isn’t an effective deterrent. It tends to make people more skeptical of the government and less likely to believe these criminal charges aren’t politically motivated.
A jury may find the government’s acts and this apparent incursion into protected speech too problematic to deliver a guilty verdict. But until it’s in the jury’s hands, certain election disinformation — if disseminated by certain people — is apparently a criminal offense. When something is this vague and selective, it’s not a deterrent. It’s a chilling effect, which is suppression of free speech. And this court, unfortunately, seems fine with that.
'Alt-right' Twitter troll's election interference trial postponed after anti-hate watchdog obtains 'private' emails
The trial of "alt-right" Twitter troll Douglass Mackey, better known by his "Major League"-referencing handle "Ricky Vaughn," has been temporarily postponed.
lawandcrime.com
Douglass Mackey 2016 election interference trial postponed
archived 16 Mar 2023 12:40:01 UTC
‘Alt-right’ Twitter troll’s election interference trial postponed after anti-hate watchdog obtains ‘private’ emails
The trial of “alt-right” Twitter troll Douglass Mackey, better known by his “Major League”-referencing handle “Ricky Vaughn,” has been postponed after a researcher from an anti-hate watchdog group obtained “private” emails concerning the defense’s expert witness.Now, Mackey’s expert has withdrawn from the case, and his defense team is scrambling to replace him, his lawyer revealed.
It’s the latest wrinkle in the high-profile prosecution of Mackey, who was on the cusp of an imminent trial for sharing memes encouraging Black supporters of Hillary Clinton to vote by text message in the 2016 election. Federal prosecutors say that Mackey measurably interfered with the election through misinformation about casting votes by phone, which isn’t a valid way of casting ballots in the United States. The government says the meme fooled at least 4,900 Democrats.
Mackey is known for laundering racist, antisemitic, and white supremacist talking points into mainstream conservative discourse. His Twitter bio read “It’s okay to be white,” before his account was suspended. He tweeted out images of an octopus with a Star of David enveloping the globe with its tentacles and another suggesting Jewish control of the media to elevate Black people. Mackey also appeared to obliquely find a supporter in Twitter’s owner Elon Musk, who agreed with someone who called Mackey’s prosecution “concerning.”
In the middle of jury selection for his trial, Mackey’s lawyer Andrew Frisch alerted the court to a story pursued by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on the defense’s would-be expert witness George Hawley, an associate professor of political science from the University of Alabama. Though the article has not yet been published, Frisch claimed that it “unfairly disparages” Hawley and is based in part on the professor’s “private emails.”
The SPLC has not yet run the story by freelance journalist Luke O’Brien, who specializes in investigating extremism and disinformation.
“Mr. O’Brien waited until the start of trial to submit written questions to Professor Hawley in an apparent attempt to paint him as an extremist, including questions based on private emails which Mr. O’Brien obtained, simultaneously asking Professor Hawley if his employer, the University of Alabama, is aware of his proffered testimony at Mr. Mackey’s trial,” Frisch wrote in a letter requesting a two-week trial delay.
O’Brien declined to discuss the story on the record because it has not yet been published, but Mackey’s lawyer claims that Hawley responded to the journalist’s questions in writing. Frisch told the judge that Hawley has now asked to withdraw his name as a witness.
“For these reasons, I have no choice but to request a short adjournment of trial so that I may endeavor to identify a replacement expert witness,” Frisch wrote.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis granted a tentative adjournment of opening statements until Monday, March 20. Those proceedings were originally expected to take place on Thursday, March 16. The judge also scheduled a telephone conference on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. to discuss the matter and whether a further delay is warranted.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2021-title18/pdf/USCODE-20…
archived 18 Mar 2023 09:32:48 UTC
18 U.S.C. § 241
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured— They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 696; Pub. L. 90–284, title I, §103(a), Apr. 11, 1968, 82 Stat. 75; Pub. L. 100–690, title VII, §7018(a), (b)(1), Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4396; Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, §60006(a), title XXXII, §§320103(a), 320201(a), title XXXIII, §330016(1)(L), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1970, 2109, 2113, 2147; Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, §§604(b)(14)(A), 607(a), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3507, 3511.)
Oh, when I say the Democrats stole the 2020 election, I'm a conspiracy theorist, but when they say the 2016 election was stolen, Trump supporters go to jail!
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