A Trump supporter who was convicted of election interference after posting Hilary Clinton memes online has questioned whether the US is a “free country” ahead of his prison sentence.
Douglass Mackey faces seven months in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to disenfranchise citizens in the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors successfully argued that fake campaign posters Mackey shared under his alias “Ricky Vaughn” encouraged Hillary Clinton supporters to cast meaningless votes via text message instead of actually voting.
But Mackey, 33, claimed the posters were harmless memes meant to mock the presidential candidate.
Now, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, he has revealed how his beliefs have changed his opinion of the US, saying: ‘I don’t know if we’re a free country.’
Douglass Mackey, who was convicted of election fraud for posting a fake Hilary Clinton campaign in 2016, wondered whether America is a ‘free country’ ahead of his seven-month prison sentence
Mackey was interviewed by Tucker Carlson about memes he shared online under his alias Ricky Vaughn, which a judge ruled constituted a conspiracy to disenfranchise voters.
“I thought this was America, I thought we had the First Amendment, the right to due process, so we could criticize people in our ruling class,” Mackey said.
He also agreed with Carlson that “being thrown in jail for making fun of Hilary Clinton” sets a precedent.
“The scary thing is if they think you’re conspiring on the Internet, they can subpoena your entire life and search everything you have, so I mean it’s a very dangerous precedent,” Mackey said.
“Not just the fact that they can pick you up and drag you to whatever federal district they want across the country because tweets cross the wire.”
Mackey was convicted in March for his memes, which his lawyers said were examples of “s**tposting,” an Internet term for posting provocative satirical messages intended to shock and upset online enemies.
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.”
At least 4,900 people texted the fake phone numbers, prosecutors said.
Mackey, 33, now faces a seven-year prison sentence for the federal crime
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 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)
But Mackey claimed that researchers had not been able to interview a single person who honestly believed he cast his vote, and instead argued that most people understood it was a joke.
“Should we charge these things as federal crimes with a 10-year prison sentence?” Mackey asked.
The former economics researcher posted the memes under the account name Ricky Vaughn, a reference to Charlie Sheen’s character in “Major League.” His true identity was revealed by the Huffington Post.
He described how he was woken at 7 a.m. one day in March by FBI agents who burst into his home and handcuffed him.
He claimed he was not told why he was being arrested until he arrived at the courthouse.
But despite his shock, Mackey insisted he is not afraid to leave his wife and baby behind to begin his prison sentence.
At the sentencing, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ann Donnelly emphasized that Mackey did 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.’
Assistant U.S. Attorney Turner Buford argued that Mackey’s conduct “was about evaporating votes, making them disappear.”
Jessica Morales, Clinton’s digital organizing director in 2016, testified in the case.
“I thought this was America, I thought we had the First Amendment, the right to due process, so we could criticize people in our ruling class,” Mackey said.
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.