A pro-Trump social media influencer with thousands of followers on Twitter was convicted of election inference during the 2016 election.
“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a Department of Justice press release.
“Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and 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,” Peace continued.
Douglass Mackey, who went by the name of “Ricky Vaughn” online, was accused of purposely spreading disinformation online in an effort to suppress votes for Hillary Clinton back in the 2016 election.
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The verdict was announced Friday by Peace and Michael J. Driscoll, assistant director-in-charge for the FBI’s New York field office.
Mackey had amassed about 58,000 followers, according to the DOJ, and was subsequently ranked as the 107th most important influencer ahead of the 2016 elections, an analysis by the MIT Media Lab that same year. He outranked other high-profile voices such as NBC News (No. 114), Stephen Colbert (No. 119) and Newt Gingrich (No. 141).
The press release details that between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other social media influencers to “disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to ‘vote’ via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid.”
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The DOJ cited one example of Mackey’s crimes, on Nov. 1, 2016, just one week ahead of election day, where he tweeted a photo of a Black woman standing in front of a sign reading, “African Americans for Hillary.” It was around this time that Mackey issued tweets suggesting “black turnout” during the election be limited, according to the DOJ.
“Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” Mackey’s tweet stated in an ad. “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” and “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.”
The tweeted ad included fine print that stated voters must be over 18 years of age, a legal resident of the U.S., but that residents of Guam, Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii were not eligible. The phony ad added that it was “Paid for by Hillary For President 2016” and included the Clinton campaign slogan, “#ImWithHer.”
“On or about and before Election Day 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted ‘Hillary’ or some derivative to the 59925 text number, which had been used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by Mackey and his co-conspirators,” the DOJ stated in its press release.
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Hours after tweeting the fraudulent ad, Mackey tweeted another photo depicting a woman typing on her phone while using a font similar to the one from Clinton’s campaign and written in Spanish. The captions were written in Spanish and again included the “ImWithHer” hashtag, the DOJ said.
Mackey was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, back in January 2021. He lived in New York City at the time of the tweets.
Twitter said it worked “closely with appropriate authorities on the issue,” according to the Associated Press earlier this year.
Mackey will face sentencing on Aug. 16, according to Politico. Andrew Frisch, Mackey’s attorney, said they are optimistic on appealing the verdict.
“We are optimistic about our chances on appeal,” Frisch told Politico.