A Trump-supporting Twitter influencer convicted of conspiring to disenfranchise citizens in the 2016 presidential election has been sentenced to seven months in prison.
Douglass Mackey, 33 – known online as “Ricky Vaughan” after the famous Charlie Sheen character from the Major League films – was convicted in March.
He was sued over his tweets urging Hillary Clinton supporters to cast meaningless votes via text message rather than casting an actual ballot.
At the sentencing, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ann Donnelly emphasized that Mackey would not go to prison because of his conservative views.
“You will not be convicted because of your political beliefs or the expression of those beliefs,” she said. “Each of us has the right to have an opinion and to express that opinion.”
Douglass Mackey, 33 – known online as “Ricky Vaughan” after the famous Charlie Sheen character from the Major League films – was convicted in March
Mackey was known on social media as Ricky Vaughn, based on Charlie Sheen’s character in “Major League,” which he used as his Twitter avatar (right).
Donnelly said he was being convicted of an “insidious” attempt to stop people from actually voting and that he was guilty of “nothing less than an attack on our democracy.”
As the New York Daily News reported, Mackey must leave his wife and their child, born that month, on Jan. 18 and report to prison pending an appeal.
“We look forward to Doug’s vindication on appeal,” Mackey’s attorney, Andrew Frisch, said at the sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Paulsen called Mackey’s sentence “significant.”
“It will send a message to the people who celebrated this defendant’s actions,” he said. “And it will send a message to those who want to follow in his footsteps.”
Frisch previously argued that Mackey’s memes urging Clinton supporters to “vote from home” via text messages were merely “online trash talk” in hopes of gaining viral fame.
‘Mister. “Mackey didn’t share the memes as some kind of grand plan,” Frisch told the jury, according to the New York Daily News, arguing that the idea of voting by text was patently ridiculous to anyone with a basic knowledge of U.S. elections.
According to a criminal complaint, Mackey and unnamed co-conspirators created a series of images purporting to be Clinton campaign advertisements, including the image above
Mackey had numerous Twitter accounts and was repeatedly banned by the social media company
Mackey, 33 – known online as “Ricky Vaughn” – was convicted over his tweets urging Hillary Clinton supporters to cast meaningless votes via text message
Mackey (right) was seen leaving the federal courthouse in Brooklyn in March with his father walking by his side
Frisch insisted that his client was simply “s**tposting,” an Internet term for publishing provocative satirical posts with the aim of shocking and angering online opponents.
According to a criminal complaint, Mackey and unnamed co-conspirators created a series of images purporting to be Clinton campaign advertisements with messages such as “Avoid the Line.” Vote from home. Text “Hillary” to 59925.
The fake campaign ads also contained fine print falsely claiming that they were “paid for by Hillary for President in 2016.”
The phone number in the fake ads received at least 4,900 text message responses with variations of Clinton’s name, including some from people in New York, prosecutors said.
“This wasn’t about changing votes. “This was about evaporating voices and making them disappear,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Turner Buford said during opening statements.
“The number was real and set up to receive incoming messages,” he argued. “The release of these fake campaign ads was intended to flood the Internet before Election Day.”
In his opening statement, Mackey’s attorney argued that his memes urging Clinton supporters to “vote from home” via text messages were merely “online trash talk.”
Mackey, 33 – known online as “Ricky Vaughn” – is on trial for tweeting encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to cast meaningless votes via text message
Jessica Morales, Clinton’s digital organizing director in 2016, testified in the case.
She said the “Vote by Text” tweets were extremely concerning for the campaign and asked if she considered them a joke. She replied, “No, no joke.” Not for me. Not a parody.’
“It’s a very sneaky graphic.” “It’s designed to look like it came from the campaign…It’s meant to look like what we did,” she said, according to the Daily News.
At the time of the alleged fraud, Mackey had 58,000 followers on Twitter and was considered a “major influence” in the election that Donald Trump won, according to prosecutors.
He had described himself as an “American nationalist” who regularly retweeted Trump and spread conspiracy theories about Democratic voter fraud.
The criminal complaint identifies two Twitter accounts associated with Mackey that were suspended in the weeks before the 2016 election for allegedly spreading election misinformation.