Douglass Mackey, a far-right Twitter troll who went by the name “Ricky Vaughn” was sentenced in a Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday. The 33-year-old Floridian was facing charges of Conspiracy Against Rights for attempting to suppress the people’s right to vote in the 2016 presidential election. He was initially facing ten years in federal prison but was ultimately sentenced to 7 months and a $15,000 fine.
“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote… [the verdict] 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.” – US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York
Leading up to the 2016 election. Mackey amassed a following of 58,000 on Twitter; at the time, MIT Media Labs listed him as one of the most impactful political influencers (107th). It was proven at trial that he conspired with other prominent political influencers to use social media platforms, primarily Twitter, to spread misinformation in an attempt to suppress voter turnout for Hillary Clinton.
In online groups that called themselves “War Room” and “Infowars Madman” (a reference to Alex Jones), Mackey and his friends pursued what they described as the “deep psyops of meme war”. One of the group’s users, who goes by the name “Microchip”, began working as a witness for the FBI in 2018.
Despite what Republican pundits might say, Mackey was not charged or convicted for sharing memes; in fact, the crime in question centers on only a handful of images that Mackey and others shared in the days leading up to the 2016 election. (*Images are at the bottom of the page)
Redeploying a tactic they say they learned from the Brexit campaign a few months prior, Mackey and associates posted images that encouraged people to avoid the ballot boxes and “vote via text message” instead; they diligently styled each image so as to trick voters into thinking the images came directly from the Hillary campaign.
Mainstream Republican framing, however, continues to center around the myopic notion of free speech absolutism. In particular, Tucker Carlson, the da Vinci of political propaganda, had a field day (Clip 1, Clip 2); what else could this be but the tyrannical regime displaying its “utter intolerance for dissent”?
It’s an appealing, romantic narrative, it’s no shock it was pushed all the way down the line.
Despite what faux-patriots might espouse, Mackey’s lack of respect for our democracy is the predominant disposition all throughout the MAGA ranks; looking back, his actions serve as a stark precursor to their behavior in 2020.
His sentencing is also emblematic of the larger wave of accountability that’s ravaging the MAGA crowd. Notably, Dominion (the company responsible for US voting machines) got $787 million out of a defamation suit against Fox; now they’re targeting the three musketeers of election denialism: Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell (worth watching). They’re seeking $1.2 billion from each individual.
Their supreme leader Donald Trump also happens to be dipping his toes into the murky waters of federal litigation, but of course, 91 indictments sound scary until you open your eyes and realize they’re nothing but Deep State fabrications.
Here are Douglass Mackey’s “memes”:
