Well folks, for those few remaining Americans who did not accept we were entering the full Orwellian era, you can eliminate those remaining shreds of hope. As unbelievable as it might sound federal authorities in the DOJ have arrested the person behind the Twitter Account “Ricky Vaughn” for posting memes against the interests of the U.S. government.
Let that sink in for a few minutes.
Literally all the guy did was post snarky memes poking fun of democrats and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election… However, the United States government has now claimed: “the defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one the of most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote.”
So what was 31-year-old Douglass Mackey’s (aka Ricky Vaughn), activity? He posted a funny and snarky meme on Twitter:
DOJ – […] Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for [Hillary]” sign. The image included the following text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[Hillary]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [Hillary] and be a part of history.” The fine print at the bottom of the image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by [Hillary] for President 2016.” The tweet included the typed hashtags “#Go [Hillary]” and another slogan frequently used by the Candidate.
You have to read the Press Release HERE and pick your jaw off the floor.
DOJ Press Release – A Florida man was arrested this morning on charges of conspiring with others in advance of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election to use various social media platforms to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.
Douglass Mackey, aka Ricky Vaughn, 31, of West Palm Beach, was charged by criminal complaint in the Eastern District of New York. He was taken into custody this morning in West Palm Beach and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart of the Southern District of Florida.
“According to the allegations in the indictment, the defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one the of most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote,” said Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This indictment underscores the department’s commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who would undermine citizens’ voting rights.”
“There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote,” said Seth D. DuCharme, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “With Mackey’s arrest, we serve notice that those who would subvert the democratic process in this manner cannot rely on the cloak of Internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes. They will be investigated, caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
“Protecting every American citizen’s right to cast a legitimate vote is a key to the success of our republic,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. “What Mackey allegedly did to interfere with this process – by soliciting voters to cast their ballots via text – amounted to nothing short of vote theft. It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public’s trust in our electoral processes. He may have been a powerful social media influencer at the time, but a quick Internet search of his name today will reveal an entirely different story.”
The complaint alleges that in 2016, Mackey established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Election, ranking his account above outlets and individuals such as NBC News (#114), Stephen Colbert (#119) and Newt Gingrich (#141).
As alleged in the complaint, between September 2016 and November 2016, in the lead up to the Nov. 8, 2016, U.S. Presidential Election, Mackey conspired with others to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages designed to encourage supporters of one of the presidential candidates (the “Candidate”) to “vote” via text message or social media, a legally invalid method of voting. (read more)
Think about this folks…. It is demonstrably true the DOJ, FBI, CIA and aggregate United States intelligence apparatus use intentionally fraudulent evidence, created by government officials, to interfere in the 2016 election. Candidate Donald Trump was put under surveillance and all of his campaign communications and transition team communication was collected -and weaponized, by the United States government to eliminate the candidate…. And no accountability was ever delivered for that action.
Meanwhile, a 31-year-old random Twitter user is charged with “Unlawfully Used Social Media to Deprive Individuals of Their Right to Vote.”
You just cannot make this stuff up.
The United States is quite literally becoming a totalitarian and ideological police state using the same tactics as communist China, Russia, the former communist Soviet Union and East German Stasi, to target subversives for posting memes against their interests.
Rubicon crossed.
Shark jumped.
This is jaw-dropping to contemplate.
[scribd id=492357939 key=key-WxwP8j15UxzNJ0fe2qHG mode=scroll]
Yes, the full weight of the federal government is using this one silly example to send a message to the current American citizenry that any ideological challenges, even words or pictures, against the interests of the federal government are grounds for you to be arrested.
Meanwhile back at FBI headquarters in Washington DC….
“Deprived people of the right to vote” How do you do that via any social media account? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Well, there is Schumer on the floor of the Senate…..
What about widely disseminated fake suppression polls distributed by the media? That has more impact than a meme that everyone knows is fake.
Essentially, we lost our right to vote. A landslide win overcome by criminality.
The people who actually text the number and tried to vote should be purged from the voter rolls as too mentally incompetent to vote..
I expect this to be thrown out of court at the arraignment. It’s harassment by political operatives in the DOJ who had to wait four years for a new administration.
The DOJ and FBI need to be abolished.
Never forget, the process is the punishment.
The smear, the time, the expense.
Filing it does the damage, even if eventually dropped after several appeals (assuming one can find an honest judge).
There were many an article printed at the time this was happening. One tech company tried the text. Said they got notice it wasn’t for real.
This, is why a basic test for a voters card. You are participating in a legal binding process, when you vote. It really is more a privilege than a right. Just, like a driver’s license.
So much responsibility comes with it!
Of course this is a non-event. Will be thrown out by any jury.
The aim is to make the arrest and prosecution the punishment.
It’s hard not to conclude the US is disintegrating at it power centres.
It should be thrown out on a motion to dismiss by the defense attorney. As noted above, there should be some “victims” who were taken in by this fraud and gave up their right to vote because of their detrimental reliance on this to make out a case of fraud. Are there any people willing to come forward and publicly admit they were that stupid?
That is not the point. The defendant will have to spend $100,000 on a lawyer to defend themselves, ruining their finances. And that is assuming they dont threaten to arrest his wife/girlfriend/sister/brother or all of the above to try to force a plea. And if he beats all that he cant sue them because of sovereign immunity.
it’s only a short comment, try and read the lot…”The aim is to make the arrest and prosecution the punishment”. Exactly the point.
In the new FBI/DOJ manual, this is called the “Flynn procedure.”
I feel like crying… for all of us who loved the USA.
A public defender should be able to win the case.
“…should be able to win this case…”
Under the old rules, certainly. We are now in the uncharted waters of a very different sea.
Thought it would be easily understood that I mean legal non-event…because of the reference to “jury”.
He might not be poor enough for a PD. It’s the middle class that gets crushed by legal bills. And a criminal defense attorney cannot take a case on a contingency fee basis.
A non-event? The retainer for the legal defense alone is enough to bankrupt most people.
See above.
Since the courts are in it. I don’t see how he walks out of this.
Jury.
Jury can easily be selected. Remember Roger Stone. And if the judge doesn’t agree with the jury he can override them.
Directed verdicts needs a legally valid reason, not personal political disagreement by a judge. Though this is America and with its incompetent attempt to ape English common law… anything can happen
Then it goes to Appeal court and gets thrown out .
The process is the punishment.
He doesn’t, they will disappear him.
Some scary stuff going on in this country.
Try not to be silly. It doesn’t help.
He’s an “example”, not a threat to Democrat power
He is an example to the threat that people like him pose to the Democrat power.
If he gets an obama Federal Judge you’re absolutely right! That’s what obama Federal Judges are for to protect deep staters and Democrats and to convict Republicans, conservatives and Christians!
You are correct about the punishment. Happened to one of my employees at a state level. The prosecution really didn’t have a case, but stalled and delayed a trial until they bankrupted the employee. and he had to accept a plea bargain. That helped to improve the “conviction rate” for the prosecution.What happened to the commitment to a “fair and speedy trial”?
And this is from 2016?
REALLY? In 2016 Our “great” FBI and DOJ started digging a hole where they saw sign printed–I am stupid- and they are Still digging in that hole.
Someone—hand them another shovel!!
2016 when Obama was President and Lynch was AG!! Five years ago.
Notice the FBI name “William Sweeny.” That’s the same FBI William Sweeny who kicked off the Weiner laptop FBI stuff and is up to his neck in that issue.
““What Mackey allegedly did to interfere with this process — by soliciting voters to cast their ballots via text — amounted to nothing short of vote theft,” said William Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant director in charge. “It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public’s trust in our electoral processes.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-man-arrested-twitter-voter-misinformation-campaign-20210127-np3afvevcvfclara73skt6liom-story.html
From the OIG report 6/19/’18:
“The case agent immediately notified his NYO chain of command [of Weiner laptop contents], and the information was ultimately briefed to NYO Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) William Sweeney on September 28.
https://oig.justice.gov/node/640
So many cockroaches, so little time.
Just sayin’
IS IT…. illegal to attempt to erode “the public’s trust in our electoral processes?”
LOL
That is exactly what… millions of Trump voters are about to DO — try to convince Americans NOT to trust our electoral processes bc our election processes, voting systems are so deficient… that our elections ARE rigged, massively literally … rigged…. like you don’t even need to vote rigged.
Yes, and it’s been like that for decades. Just not as obvious.
I want on the jury. We still have the right to say ‘Not Guilty’ don’t we?
Yeah but that would make you guilty.
SAY MY NAME, PEOPLE!
A true statement, that still exists. Yet, the number of people (even among MAGA supporters) who would still vote guilt is astounding.
Sorry to tell you this but you have been deselected.
Obviously the information for the charges has been known for over 4 years and no charges. What changed?
Memes are effective. So, they must be banned.
What changed is that now they have this new, wondrous power where they can go back and retroactively charge someone with a crime when at the time, no crime was actually committed–because it wasn’t illegal then.
So as I said on the previous page, in this brave new world, you can now “break the law” BEFORE that “law” was ever even created. Handy, eh? (I mean, handy for them, not for us, of course)
That would be kind of like what is happening to people in Hong Kong – for protesting peacefully before the “National Security” law was put into effect
I think you just put a finger on exactly where this is coming from. Thanks!
Minority Report
The leadership in the Executive Branch. Political ideologies are now once again aligned. It is amazing that President Trump was able to achieve all that he did knowing that the DOJ was opposed to him from top to bottom.
“What changed?” Freedom vs communism.
The folks who brought you HR-1 and the DHS bulletin are now in charge.
In 2020 election “misinfo” became a crime, or so we are supposed to believe
Kind of reminds me of the video that caused the Benghazi attack /s
This is so freaking ridiculous. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Satire of PDJT is permitted and encouraged; same if that satire is directed toward conservative voices and other non-liberal thinking.
Satire of Dementia Biden is strictly verboten; same if that satire is directed toward other high profile Democrat leading lights and sacred progressive thinking.
Soon we will receive enlightenment in the guise of education camps; if these don’t work, perhaps a stint in a labor camp; and then of course, there’s always the final solution, the end of the road camps.
A celebrity can post an image of herself holding his severed head, but you can’t meme against the government. Civil war coming in a big way.
Free Ricky Vaughn!
I will second that. “THEY” are deliberately baiting us to provoke a confrontation to justify themselves and further tighten down the screws.
We have to wait for John & Jill Indifferent that watch MSM in middle Amerika to wake up.
Why? Wasn’t it something like 3% of the population that won the American Revolution?
Waiting until they come for every single one of us one at a time will not work.
Let’s hope that when that happens we have another Bundy Ranch.
Those who give into intimidation and fear will never be free.
Rubicon crossed.
Shark jumped.
And Atlas has shrugged.
Not quite, Atlas hasn’t. Not until every dollar we spend is directed to save our freedom.
In Ayn’s brilliant novel, she envisioned people who were genius producers who stopped producing for the enemy. In our world, we had one such who became our greatest President.
Our situation is now analogous but not entirely the same. We must stop buying from the foreign/global enemy and start giving our trade only to our fellows.
Anything we do, small though it may be, will be multiplied by our numbers.
His real crime is being more popular than Stephen Colbert…are they NOW going to finally shut down Twitter for allowing this subversive content?/s
#JeSuitRicky
Excellent observation, flyover. We need to hammer this.
How is this any difference than a comedian . I know he’s not funny, but Colbert does the same thing do most comics.
Colbert is not funny either.
What is the charging offense? I didn’t read anything that began with USC Title [..]
The statute is 18 USC 241.
If 2 or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State. . . in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the U.S . .
Weissmann must have advised them on how to twist this statute
Sundance, why did Donald Trump not release, fire, call it what you will, Chris Wray. Why? Why make life easy for him?
Any director of the FBI that allowed that which is pictured in the post should have been canned. Those FBI employees were taking a political position on my dime.
They hate memes. Memes helped elect Trump x2. Biden banned the words China virus. Just put on another mask!
The folks over at Babylon Bee must be wondering if they are about to get black bagged next…
Satire has LONG been accepted as protected speech. Ricky should file a civil rights lawsuit against DOJ for violation of his 1st Amendment rights.
Good luck finding a court that will protect anybody who opposes JoeBama though…
And The People’s Cube–although, I don’t think they give a flying flip what anyone thinks of them there.
Time to engage in jury nullification.
Thank you for the endorsement!
Surely this is ALL just a cruel joke … and Alan Funt will show up any minute and say:
“SMILE, YOU’RE ON CANDID CAMERA!.”
… and I AM serious.
For much of 4 years… I have been saying… “this is insane. It can’t be real” … and I’m saying it again re: this absurdity– this MUST be a joke. “They” MUST be trying to show us how our lack of paying attention can lead to… tryanny and the loss of our liberty. This cannot be real.
What’s being done to Mackey is a FLAGRANT violation of the 1st Amendment right to free speech. Arrested by the FBI? Are u kidding?
Can we have Stephen Colbert arrested too?
What is SO scary is that if you asked Colbert about this … he would likely agree that FBI did the right thing arresting Mackey.
What I often hear the left/dems say: “WELL, you can’t scream fire in a movie theater either” as justification for silencing any and all conservative political speech. They view conservative ideas… as dangerous and deserving of censorship… and punishment too.
Bill Barr’s DOJ started the investigation. RV liked my ability to use Roman/Greek history to destroy feminist assertions, on Gab. He would often ask me to make my account public so he could share my posts. Wonder if I’ll get arrested for wrongthink?
Yep, they are deliberately destroying our country and handing it over to China.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/china/china-becomes-1-place-for-direct-foreign-investment/
The DOJ and FBI waking up after a 4 year nap and they’re in an unconstitutional mood.
So it takes less than 3 hours to hit the racetrack in investigate a piece of rope, but it takes over 4 years to deal with voter fraud? Sometime in 2025 they will deal with the 75+ million Americans who were falsely told that voting with a ballot was the way to go.
Or are they trying to elect Hillary because President Trump stole the 2016 election?
I’m afraid that the Powers that be don’t care what you think about their lies. They can win an election whether you vote or not.
I’m pretty sure humor is covered under the first amendment. I hope the federal government is punished to the tune of millions of dollars for this violation of civil rights.
I cannot for the life of me see how can anyone on this site be surprise of this action. This is just the beginning. I’m definitely not surprise.
You can arrest Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and John Oliver for doing the same thing!!!
You mean like BLM/AntiFa rioters../sarc
Citizens’arrest?
Are they trying to elect Hillary Clinton again? Is Biden a puppet for Hillary?
When I was younger I used to think that living in a totalitarian state would be terrifying. Never did I think that totalitarian state would be here. Locked in our homes, unable to worship in our churches, unsecured elections, and terrorists charged or not depending upon the suitability of their message or cause.
My jaw did drop when I read it earlier.
This guy is probably going WTF? And from the ’16 election?
I hope someone will take his case just because of this precedent it is setting.
Also, I thought voting was a privilege, not a right.
I don’t think the defense for this is anything too complicated.
This sounds like a pretty stupid prosecution.
Here is another problem for the prosecution: How many people can they prove were “defrauded” of their vote by Ricky Vaughn? Did they receive one criminal complaint from anyone that their “vote-by-text” was not counted?
FOUR YEARS to investigate a MEME? What the hell is this?
This is not about the law. There is no rule of law.
This is about brutal show of government force & oppression of dissent.
The government has all the money, time, lawyers…….we on the other hand do not and can easily be bankrupted. Government money is endless to pursue us.
My goodness the liberal world has gone mad, upside down topsy turvy.
The Leftist are just jealous that they can’t meme. These people in charge are literal filth. The Republic dies to thunderous applause.
“The United States is
quite literally becominga totalitarian and ideological police state…”There—fixed if for ya.
It’s midnight in America. For those few patriots still awake, discover your power of Jury Nullification, which may be the last prospect of keeping freedom’s flame alight.
So, is it time yet Sundance?
The great comfort in all this is at least Gorsuch and Kav and Amy aren’t losing any sleep over the corruption of prosecutorial power at AG departmental level.
Anyone who proclaimed with a straight face that Texas had no standing in a fraudulent PA vote that changed the outcome of a Presidential election, will predictably be having a yawn about the consequences.
“It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public’s trust in our electoral processes.”
You don’t say! Do you mean illegal behavior like maybe stealing an election through vote fraud? That might just be illegal too, you know. Nope, nothing to see there . . . IF you refuse to look.
I have told all of you. This country as we once knew it is over.
Your not voting your way out of this people.
What is the criminal charge? I.e., the section of 18 United States Code alleged to have been violated?
I have never had a Twitter but don’t you have to voluntarily follow the guy? So if you followed the guy you must know something about his memes etc.
If you don’t know anything about him why would you figure that he is the only guy in the world who has knowledge about voting by text. This arrest is purely for harassment.
Barr should have purged the DOJ of zealots, sadly he was as corrupt as the rest of the cabal and now they are empowered to harass everyday Americans for using their first amendment speech. Heil Dems or else.
“Can get an indictment of a ham sandwich if you want me to.”
~ DeepState hack prosecutor.
Financially Destroy Mackey and any dissenters.
Morally Destroy Mackey and any dissenters.
Instill Fear in Mackey and any dissenters.
Show of brutal Force – to Mackey and any dissenters.
Communists Installed on 1/20/21.
They will come for us here at CTH.
Protecting every American citizen’s right to cast a legitimate vote is a key to the success of our republic,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. “What Mackey allegedly did to interfere with this process – by soliciting voters to cast their ballots via text – amounted to nothing short of vote theft. It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public’s trust in our electoral processes.
I do believe they are trying to create the false narative that the 2020 election had no fraud.. if there was fraud the FBI/DOJ would have acted..LOL
Why did/does FBI attny Sweeney… assume ANY US Citizens believed they could vote via text?
Everywhere during an election cycle the rules re: how to vote are posted everywhere.
CAN you have your vote literally “stolen”in this way? Doesnt THEFT need to be done in some active, literal way?
.
“Doesn’t THEFT need to be done in some active, literal way?”
Oh, you mean like having a computer program that moves one candidate’s votes to another candidate’s tally? Or like hauling in truck loads of ballots and scanning those for one candidate? Or like rescanning the same ballots over and over again? You mean like that?
Pshaw! None of those are illegal, but trying to make people laugh by posting silly memes? Oh, NOW that will get you sent to prison!
Sundance I hope you are flushing the commenter IPs! https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-stop-storing-ip-address-in-wordpress-comments/#:~:text=UPDATE%20'wp_comments'%20SET%20'comment_author_IP,with%20comments%20in%20WordPress%20database.
Just saw this at Posobiec –
I’d report this to the FIB but they would throw me in prison.
Well, looks like Posobeic just made it clear.
He is a fighter to be admired.
Barr and Wray have been working on this for months.
Communist Terror unleashed on dissenters – 2021.
Preparation for formal law labeling us and dissent “Domestic Terrorists”.
They have lots more cued up – arrests, dedicated jails/camps, etc….
They are goading us to react. They are goading us to rise up.
This is why DC is locked down and “guarded”.
This is all by design……Dark times unfolding.
They want a revolt by the people.
The next talking head that makes excuses for the ‘rank and file’ deserve the hole they will find themselves in.
99% would put a boot on your neck for disrespecting Joseph Stolen.
Cue up Hannity