The trial of Douglas Mackey for “election interference” concluded earlier this month without much attention paid to it. But the fate of the internet prankster — who now faces 10 years in federal prison after being convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn for the crime of “conspiracy against rights” — tells us as much as any other recent incident about the way the administrative state is eroding freedom of speech for those who dissent from the approved leftist orthodoxy.
The determination of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to jail Mackey for posting a satirical internet meme during the 2016 election campaign should be considered a turning point in the saga of a corrupt regime’s attempt to use the spread of so-called “misinformation” to intimidate opponents.
Mackey was an internet troll who ran a now-suspended account with 58,000 followers under the name @Rickey_Vaughn99, an evocation of one of the characters in the classic baseball film comedy “Major League.” He used the account to post comic memes, many of which were unsavory. And some of those with whom he associated were known hatemongers, something that explains the reluctance of many to rush to his defense.
But his legal woes are solely due to his posting a fake Hillary Clinton ad on Twitter prior to the 2016 election. The tweet, which included a picture of Clinton and used the color scheme associated with her campaign, made the following preposterous claim: “Save time Avoid the line Vote from home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925
