Trump-supporting influencer Douglass Mackey, aka, ‘Ricky Vaughan’ is jailed for seven months for 2016 election interference after tweeting fake posters toward Hillary Clinton supporters
A Trump-supporting Twitter influencer found guilty 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,” in reference to the famous Charlie Sheen character from the Major League films – was convicted in March.
He was flagged for his tweets encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to cast meaningless votes via text message instead of actually voting.
At the sentencing, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ann Donnelly emphasized that Mackey would not go to prison because of his conservative views.
“You are not judged for your political beliefs or for expressing those beliefs,” she said. ‘Each of us has the right to hold an opinion and express that opinion.’
Douglass Mackey, 33 – known online as “Ricky Vaughan,” in reference to 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 convicted of an “insidious” attempt to deter people from actually voting and was guilty of “nothing less than an attack on our democracy.”
Mackey will have to leave his wife and their child, born this month, behind on January 18 to report to prison pending an appeal. Daily news from New York reported.
“We look forward to hearing Doug’s vindication on appeal,” Mackey’s attorney, Andrew Frisch, said at the sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Paulsen called Mackey’s prison sentence “essential.”
“It’s going to send a message to the people who celebrated what this defendant did,” he said. “And it will send a message to those who want to follow in his footsteps.”
Frisch previously argued that Mackey’s memes encouraging Clinton supporters to “vote from home” by text message were simply “online trash talk” in the hopes of gaining viral fame.
‘Mr. Mackey did not share the memes as some kind of grand plan,” Frisch told the jury Daily news from New YorkThe argument behind the idea of voting by text message was downright ridiculous to anyone with basic knowledge of US elections.
According to a criminal complaint, Mackey and unnamed co-conspirators created a number of images purporting to be Clinton campaign ads, including the one above
Mackey had numerous Twitter accounts and was repeatedly suspended by the social media company
Mackey, 33 – known online as “Ricky Vaughn” – was convicted for his tweets encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to cast meaningless votes by text message
Mackey (right) was seen leaving the federal courthouse in Brooklyn in March with his father walking beside him
Frisch insisted his client had merely done “s**tposting,” an internet term for posting provocative satirical messages intended to shock and upset online enemies.
According to a criminal complaint, Mackey and unnamed co-conspirators created a number of images purporting to be Clinton campaign ads, with messages such as “Avoid the Line.” Vote from home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.’
The fake campaign ads also included fine print falsely claiming they were “paid for by Hillary for President 2016.”
The phone number in the fake ads received at least 4,900 text responses with variations on Clinton’s name, including some from people in New York, prosecutors said.
“This wasn’t about changing votes. This was about evaporating voices, making them disappear,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Turner Buford said during the opening statement.
“The number was real and intended to receive incoming messages,” he argued. “The release of these fake campaign ads was timed to flood the Internet before Election Day.”
During his opening statement, Mackey’s attorney argued that his memes encouraging Clinton supporters to “vote from home” by text message were simply “online nonsense.”
Mackey, 33 – known online as “Ricky Vaughn” – is on trial for his tweets 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 deeply concerning for the campaign, and asked if she considered them a joke. She said, ‘No, no joke. Not for me. Not a parody.’
‘It’s a very sneaky image. It’s designed to look like it’s from the campaign… This is designed 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 influencer” in the election, which was won by Donald Trump, prosecutors said.
He had described himself as an “American nationalist” who regularly retweeted Trump and promoted conspiracy theories about voter fraud by Democrats.
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.