The law is the law, and Jimmy Kimmel broke it. Or at least, he broke the law as it has been outrageously interpreted according to President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, which prosecuted and jailed Douglass Mackey for making an almost identical joke to the one Kimmel made on Wednesday night.
During his monologue, Kimmel said, “If you want to vote for Trump, vote late. Vote very late. Do your voting on Thursday or maybe Friday.”
Get it? He’s joking about how he hopes Trump voters don’t vote in time. But is it a harmless joke or a case of “election disinformation” that violates federal law and carries serious jailtime?
Depends on who you are and which party you support. For Mackey, the man behind the erstwhile Twitter persona Ricky Vaughn, precisely this kind of joke was a crime for which he served seven months in federal prison.
What exactly did Mackey do? He posted joke memes on Twitter ahead of the 2016 election about how Hillary Clinton supporters should text in their vote for Hillary, or vote by posting the word “Hillary” on Facebook and Twitter next to the hashtag #PresidentialElection.
The memes, which you can see for yourself, are obviously jokes. A bit on the nose, maybe, but jokes nonetheless. Indeed, federal prosecutors were unable to find a single person who was deceived by them. It didn’t matter. The deep state came after Mackey, subpoenaed his financial records, pay stubs, email accounts, everything. In the end, they tried him in the Eastern District
