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Douglass Mackey, also known as “Ricky Vaughn,” was convicted of
the charge of conspiracy against rights stemming from his scheme
to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote,
the Justice Department said in a statement. Mackey faces a
maximum of 10 years in prison.
In 2016, Mackey, 33, established an audience on Twitter with
58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab
ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the
then-upcoming presidential election in which Republican former
President Donald Trump defeated Democrat former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton.
Mackey, a Trump supporter, had been charged in 2021 by federal
prosecutors in Brooklyn, who said he conspired with others to
disseminate disinformation on social media and urged people to
cast their ballots through invalid means such as text messages.
In one tweet for example, he had featured a picture of an
African American woman standing in front of a sign for an
unnamed candidate. Next to the image, it said: "Avoid the line.
Vote from home."
"Today's verdict proves that the defendant's fraudulent actions
crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical
attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a
shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the
vote," United States Attorney Breon Peace said.
Mackey's lawyer, Andrew Frisch, suggested his client would
appeal.
"This case presents an unusual array of appellate issues that
are exceptionally strong," Frisch was quoted as saying by the
New York Times, adding: "I'm confident about the way forward."
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights
organization, Vaughn has in the past openly supported hate
groups.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Editing by Franklin
Paul)
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