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“Twitter Troll” Ricky Vaughn aka Douglass Mackey has been arrested under the allegation that he interfered in the 2016 election. How exactly did he interfere in the election? posting memes.
In 2016 under the online alias Ricky Vaughn, Douglass Mackey, began posting memes about voting via text. The images he shared showed an African-American woman in line to vote and read “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[The Candidate]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [The Candidate] and be a part of history.”. At the bottom of the meme read this text: “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 [Hillary] for President 2016.”
Obviously, you can not vote by text, sending the name of your preferred candidate to a number is not going to count as a vote in any election, it is ridiculous to assume that this would work and anyone who would actually fall for this likely is not old enough to vote. The joke being made in the meme is that voters of “The Candidate”, who many believe to be Hillary Clinton, are dumb enough to believe this. To be clear, this was a joke, it was supposed to be a harmless bit of fun at the expense of a political base, but according to the DOJ, this was a coordinated effort on behalf of a third party to manipulate the outcome of an election.
From the Department of Justice:
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.”
Ironically enough a left-wing comedian did a similar bit. Kristina Wong posted a video of her in a MAGA hat with Trump signs behind here claiming that she was a Trump supporter and people needed to get out and vote. Here is the initial video:
Hey 🇺🇸Trump Supporters🇺🇸! Skip poll lines at #Election2016 and TEXT in your vote! Text votes are legit. Or vote tomorrow on Super Wednesday! pic.twitter.com/ES34HV0yad
— Kristina Wong ❄️ (@mskristinawong) November 8, 2016
Many online are calling for her arrest now that someone else was arrested for the same thing but targeting a different candidate. Under the original tweet, you can find numerous users tagging the FBI and DOJ.
And, this is indicative of ‘what’s happened’ to law-enforcement in the country…when the Federal Bureaucracy of ‘frickking libturded-Deep-State’ Idiots, think’s this is a crime to be investigated?
Where was the doj in 8 years of bo’s treasonbous 74 U.S. Law violations & defying the U.S, Constu=itution at least 10 times ! Also the fast & furious gun decit by bo & doj-ag holder that killed a border cop and never ebven a earing or indictment ! Now the U.S. Patriotic Citizen are paying for past crimes of wannabe dictators being U.S. enemies !
FBI Agent Stozok committed Treason when he fabricated false information on Trump, yes Treason, because it was intended to harm the President, the commander in Chief, his Boss. Why does he get a free ride, and his wife get a cushy high paying job?
Johnny on the spot fbi and doj to arrest 2 people who won’t fight back. Where were these worthless, corrupt agencies with all the blatant fraud in the 2020 election,the 4 years of a russian hoax and phony impeachments ??? way to go doj — you have earned 1% of your pay since 2016.
It is a well k now fact that democrats never get punish no matter how criminal it is. Proof the biggest criminal is sitting in the white house now.
they will never punish illegals for voting because they help keeping the satanic democrats in office. Biden ope the gates wide open for them and they will come by the millions for you to support them. Good job Democrats you cut your own throats.
I am all for impeaching a president after he is a private citizen but not Trump. Let’s do it to Obama who hurt this country more than any other president in America’s history. I am also for impeaching every democrat and than we can go back to having our country back and maybe be able to separate ourselves from the evil empire China.
Sigh. And yet, neither the GOP nor the judiciary voiced so much as tut-tut when Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, et al., demonstrated colossal fraud under bright lights and in plain view.
These leftists allowed cities to burn and want to arrest someone because they spoke out, ever hear of freedom of speech.
They both should be prosecuted, and the first person should should also be prosecuted for impersonating the campaign of another candidate
Bloody Stupid!! How about arresting all the illegal voters? Wonder if they’ll go after Wong too…or is it just conservatives they’ll imprison??
Everyone at the FBI and DOJ should be fired and we should start over. This is a National Shame!
Yes.