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Court Reverses Douglass Mackey’s Vote-by-Text Conspiracy Conviction

By concluding there was no evidence of an agreement, the decision affirms that Section 241 criminalizes only joint schemes to infringe voting rights.

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Douglass Mackey, who the feds say went by the Twitter name Ricky Vaughan, was allegedly a prominent anonymous anti-Semite, racist and Trump-booster online before the 2016 election.
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Overview

  • The Second Circuit vacated Mackey’s conviction under 18 U.S.C. §241 and remanded with instructions to acquit and dismiss all charges, clearing the path for his immediate release.
  • Judges found the government presented insufficient proof that Mackey knowingly joined or participated in any conspiracy to suppress votes.
  • The opinion highlighted the absence of evidence showing Mackey viewed or engaged with private groups like the “War Room” where similar memes were discussed.
  • As the first application of the Reconstruction-era civil rights statute to online misinformation, the case underscores limits on prosecuting independent digital speech without collusion.
  • Mackey, who maintains he downloaded the memes from 4chan and tagged them #MAGA, is exploring legal action over his imprisonment.