A popular social media troll who was prosecuted for meme-based election interference had his conviction tossed out for lack of evidence.
Douglass Mackey ran a popular right-wing account on social media that posted memes in 2016 telling supporters of then-candidate Hillary Clinton that they could vote for her by sending a text message on their phones. Prosecutors alleged that the posts constituted election interference.
There was a lack of evidence that Mackey communicated directly with other accounts that conspired to deprive others of their voting privilege.
Two days after Biden was inaugurated in 2021, Mackey was indicted for the scheme, and a jury later found him guilty in 2023. He was sentenced to seven months in prison.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the conviction on the basis that there was not enough evidence to support the allegation.
“The jury’s verdict and the resulting judgment of conviction must be set aside,” Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote.
Among the evidence shown to the jury was a meme of a black woman in front of a sign for African-Americans supporting Clinton. The text on the meme read, “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” and “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” as well as, “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.”
Prosecutors said that thousands of texts were sent to the number, ostensibly from those fooled by memes like the one posted by Mackey. His account had 58,000 followers at the time and was considered one of the more influential accounts in the election.
However, the appeals court found that no evidence showed that any voter was influenced by the memes that Mackey posted to his account. The court also said there was a lack of evidence that Mackey communicated directly with other accounts that conspired to deprive others of their voting privilege.
“Praise God. God is good. Now we sue,” Mackey responded in a series of posts on social media.
Mackey was accused of posting racist and anti-Semitic messages in his campaign to support then-candidate Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. His account had a profile image of “Ricky Vaughn,” the fictional Cleveland Indians pitcher from the “Major League” movie franchise.
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