sarah corriher: 10 Years in Prison for a Meme?
The Department of Justice is showing that it has become a political weapon in the earliest days of the Biden Presidency. The F.B.I. has arrested a pro-Trump meme maker (artist), who now faces a 10-year sentence for posting a comical image four years earlier. They are outright beginning to arrest people for political speech. Get reliable notification options and further information at Sarah's home site: https://SarahCorriher.com/
Blue-Check Lib FREE, While Meme Poster Faces PRISON Time!
Florida Man Arrested and Charged for Posting 2016 Hillary Clinton Meme, DOJ Calls it 'Disinformation Campaign'
BY NICK KANGADIS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
It’s amazing to watch the federal government devolve into authoritarian levels of censorship that we typically see from places like the U.K. and China. But when the federal government begins arresting people because of “memes,” it’s time to take notice because “tyranny” is here. Essentially, the feds are moving ahead with punishing the American public in different ways because their pre-approved presidential candidate didn’t win in 2016.
Florida resident and “conservative journalist” Douglass Mackey, 31, was arrested and charged with “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,” according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
The simple response is that Mackey didn’t deprive anyone of anything.
Here’s what the DOJ is reporting about Mackey:
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.
For example, on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for [the Candidate]” sign. The image included the following text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[Candidate’s first name]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [the Candidate] 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 [Candidate] for President 2016.”
The tweet included the typed hashtags “#Go [Candidate]” and another slogan frequently used by the Candidate. On or about and before Election Day 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “[Candidate’s first name]” or some derivative to the 59925 text number, which was used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by the defendant and his co-conspirators.
The DOJ did everything they could in this press release to make Mackey sound super scary, but it leaves a couple of questions. So Mackey was arrested because people were stupid enough to believe a meme that told them to text their vote? How is that his fault? Mackey didn’t “deprive” anyone of anything.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You know why they’re really going after Mackey? Because the “Candidate” whose name was redacted by the DOJ was non-other than failed presidential nominee, former senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton.
As Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a segment concerning Mackey on Wednesday evening, “Mockery online is now illegal when it’s aimed at the wrong people. Doug Mackey hurt their feelings, so they put him in jail.”
Bingo! Everything the current federal government is instructed to do and will continue to do is based on identity politics and to see who can virtue signal the most. Remember those "lists" the left kept talking about after the 2020 presidential election.
This should scare you, folks. It shouldn’t scare you to the point that you should watch what you say, it should scare you to the point that you have no choice but to keep speaking.
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JUDGE BRUCE REINHART:
Biden Justice Department arrests and charges man for anti-Hillary social media posts from 2016 election
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Thursday, 28 January 2021
Arrested and charged for "amusing or interesting items through social media".
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 complaint, 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 complaint 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.
For example, on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for [the Candidate]” sign. The image included the following text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[Candidate’s first name]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [the Candidate] 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 [Candidate] for President 2016.”
The tweet included the typed hashtags “#Go [Candidate]” and another slogan frequently used by the Candidate. On or about and before Election Day 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “[Candidate’s first name]” or some derivative to the 59925 text number, which was used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by the defendant and his co-conspirators.
The charges in the complaint are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erik Paulsen and Nathan Reilly of the Eastern District of New York, and Trial Attorney James Mann of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.
ENDS
