What a crime, that they even brought this evil case.

good news

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-meme-maker-douglass-mackeys-conviction-unanimously-thrown-out-by-appellate-court

The case has been remanded to the district court with orders to immediately dismiss.

"What a difference an election makes."

Mackey was prosecuted after sharing a meme during the 2016 election season that joked Hillary Clinton supporters should text in their vote.

It was a joke, but Biden's Department of Justice under Attorney General Merrick Garland accused him of election interference. Despite their claim, they could not provide evidence that anyone had been fooled by the meme into thinking that they should text their vote.

This lack of evidence was not concerning to the DOJ, who also suggested that Mackey was racist because of the meme.

Those memes were the basis of the jury verdict in the Eastern District of New York that convicted him of "conspiring to injure citizens in the exercise of their right to vote." The Second Circuit wrote that "the mere fact that Mackey posted the memes, even assuming that he did so with the intent to injure other citizens in the exercise of their right to vote, is not enough, standing alone, to prove a violation of Section 241. The government was obligated to show that Mackey knowingly entered into an agreement with other people to pursue that objective."

"This the government failed to do. Its primary evidence of agreement, apart from the memes themselves, consisted of exchanges among the participants in several private Twitter message groups—exchanges the government argued showed the intent of the participants to interfere with others’ exercise of their right to vote. Yet the government failed to offer sufficient evidence that Mackey even viewed—let alone participated in—any of these exchanges.

-NYC lib- jury convicted, in case so dumb, utterly & blatantly dumb, that real judges throw it out on its face.

2021:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-steps-up-pursuit-far-right-activists-2016-voter-suppression-probe-2021-05-26/

Federal prosecutors debated for years whether and how to pursue criminal cases against Americans suspected of disseminating false voting instructions....

Already absurd. It was a joke. Dems also did it.

[but they] felt it would be too difficult to bring a voter-suppression case based on online messaging, the people said. The hurdles include free-speech rights, the difficulty in establishing intent and the challenge of showing that anyone failed to vote because a specific person misled them.

Again, Biden-Kamabla DOJ in 2021 confessed to Reuters, their self-awareness that Mackey prosecution

1. violates Free Speech

2. violates need for criminal intent (there was zero)

3. violates need for criminal harm (there was zero)

Prosecute people..... ..... for fun. so Dems feelz good. McCarthyism

But DOJ libs weren't just hysterical McCarthyites.....

Jealous, too.

Mackey...[was] so effective that one study ranked him as more influential than NBC and CBS

Absurdly untrue....

.....OR, if it is true, it's even more absurd. Lib self-own. DOJ libs who admit to impotence, micro dicks.

https://x.com/DougMackeyCase/status/1884035951988732276

Amundson is one of an estimated 20 career officials inside the Justice Department who was re-assigned last week to a new Sanctuary City Working Group

Get it? Amundsen was asked to enforce actual USA laws....then refused.

• selective prosecution (Kristina Wong not mentioned)

• invention of non-existent conspiracy

So it's lame. Still, nice to see yall slow-witted libs finally move a few centimetres.

That Mackey’s primitive meme — sandwiched between thousands of his other tweets — could have fooled American voters into believing that the 2016 election allowed voting by text does indeed strain belief.

Yes.

The government relied on conversations Mackey had with his co­conspirators to show conspiratorial intent, but Mackey’s lawyers claimed that Mackey was never present in these conversations at all.

Not quite. Prosecutor failed to show that Mackey was ever present.

To show evidence, is their burden. They had NONE.

One witness said, in effect & under government pressure, Mackey & I had -an imaginary agreement in my imagination-, to defraud voters. Big whoop.

"Agreement" so "silent" (imaginary) that we NEVER had contact prosecution was that bad

USA will vote Orange in November............... ............. and this case is 1 micro example, of why.

Lib arrogance, lib abuses, lib illegitimacy.

You seem to mistake "care what you think", with "poke fun - while perhaps educate or encourage OTHERS a bit".

They are different.

All along, you've been wrong on Mackey case.

And now a publication that, in theory, YOU should respect (but really I don't), tells you so.

It's fun to point that out............ Whether or not you see it.

But it does "involve you" on some level, so - it seemed courteous to notify you.

Thus: What you call summoning was, believe it or not, done from courtesy.

You clearly do care.

Taking the 2 things together, I have no interest to do deals with you. REally none.

LINK: Drag Queens, The First Amendment, and Expressive Harms

https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-137/united-states-v-mackey/

@hubrys enjoy!

For sane people: Mackey was arrested 7 days after Biden "won" ie. 2020 stolen....... so FOUR YEARS after 2016.... by 4 USA FBI agents (plus 6 local makes 10 total)..... who gave no warning, banged down his door, cuffed him, refused even to state what he was arrested for.

Mackey did no murder, no drugs no guns no resistance no prior record..... just 1 twitter meme that libs also did.

Petty, vindictive stuff.........and classic Soviet, Nazi police state behavior.

But libs excuse it away - it's what libs want for everyone.

Another detail: They indicted a stranger 1000 miles away that Mackey had never talked to..... by pressure of same, got stranger to say he had "silent agreement" with Mackey to defraud voters........ "silent" meaning, remember, that they had NO messages, NO conversation....... NO evidence of any agreement, other than stranger uttered mere phrase "we had silent agreement" - under their pressure.

Both "comedians" posted the exact same thing. The only difference is the political parties involved.

I don't know about the GWB emails. Did he smash teh hard drives with hammers to destroy emails that were under Congressional subpoena, like Hillary did?

So, it's law-fare.
2 people do the exact same thing

So you can't read, apparently. They DIDN'T do the same thing.

One was a liberal comedian who posted a joke with no intent to violation anyone's right to vote.

The other was a conservative "comedian," who participated in sophisticated online groups coordinating efforts between themselves to have an actual effect on the election, with a stated goal within those groups being suppression of minority voter turnout.

Not the same thing. Prosecuting someone with both the necessary actus reus and mens rea isn't "lawfare."

@raphjd said in Douglass Mackey case: USA criminalizes memes. Literally.:

Like when Hillary destroyed 33,000+ emails that were under Congressional subpoena it was excused because she didn't have the "mens rea" (criminal mindset) according to the FBI. If a Repub tried that, they would be in prison for decades.

Oh, you mean like the approximately 5,000,000 missing official emails from the George W. Bush administration because government officials were using email servers owned and possessed by the Republican National Committee, which came to light during the US Attorney firing controversy.

Or are we still ignoring that and chanting "Lock her up! Lock her up!" even though Karl Rove was a MUCH worse offender than Clinton?

So, it's law-fare.

2 people do the exact same thing, but Democrats only prosecute the one that might harm their vote count, but not the one that might harm Trump's vote count.

Like when Hillary destroyed 33,000+ emails that were under Congressional subpoena it was excused because she didn't have the "mens rea" (criminal mindset) according to the FBI. If a Repub tried that, they would be in prison for decades.

Eric Holder violated a Congressional subpeona and the FBI/DOJ did nothing.

Why was a Trump supporter prosecuted, but a Trump hater was not?

I imagine they didn't prosecute the liberal comedian because she wasn't part of multiple online propaganda groups full of witnesses willing to come forward and testify that she did not, in fact, intend the meme as only a joke, but, in fact, did intend to affect the election and deprive some voters of their franchise. You know, evidence like they had against Mackey.

The fact that you didn't answer my post, I will take it that you admit it's law-fare by the DNC.

I suspect that the reason he's being granted bond pending appeal is because the court believes they could possibly be successful on the Brady violations, which might have resulted in a conviction for a period of time shorter than the sum of time already spent incarcerated and the length of the appeals process. I mean, even as convicted, he was only giving 7 months. Maybe the appeals court believes he would have only gotten a couple of months had the evidence been properly handed over to the Defense.

Bond pending appeal here doesn't necessarily mean the appeals court believes he didn't commit conspiracy with the Internet posts.

Why was a Trump supporter prosecuted, but a Trump hater was not?

That's clearly law-fare by liberals.

BREAKING NEWS: Second Circuit Court of Appeals grants bond pending appeal in the Douglass Mackey meme case

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals just overruled the District Court in granting our motion for bond pending appeal. This ruling is huge because it means that the appeals court decided that my appeal presents "substantial" and "debatable" issues of law that, if resolved in my favor, will result in my conviction being vacated. The prosecution, on the other hand, argued that my appeal was frivolous and that this was a typical election crime case like any other in U.S. history. This is a very encouraging step towards vindication.

Here is the full text of the court order:

Case Name: United States of America v. Mackey

Case Number: 23-7577

Docket Text:

MOTION ORDER, granting motion for release pending appeal, at docket entry 16 Mackey’s surrender date is stayed. The District Court is ordered to determine the appropriate terms of release, without prejudice to the government’s making a future request for detention, on behalf of Appellant Douglass Mackey, It is further ordered that this appeal is expedited. Mackey’s initial brief will be due on or before January 5, 2024. The government’s response will be due on or before February 5, 2024. Mackey’s reply brief will be due on or before February 20, 2024. The Clerk is directed to calendar this appeal as soon as practicable after February 20, 2024, GEL, MHP, OAW*, *Judge Omar A. Williams, of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, sitting by designation, FILED. [Entered: 12/04/2023 02:41 PM]

If we lose the appeal in the Second Circuit, we will swiftly file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

A hopeful sign!

@hubrys just saw your comment but I didn't miss anything - Everything you say is demented as ever.

Idea that a satirical meme is "misinformation" - Beyond ridiculous.

Idea that Dems do same meme exactly but aren't prosecuted - and you're fine with it - shows your destructiveness.

PS. Tucker Carlson doing great - has he passed 1 billion views yet? Bet that sticks in ur craw, LOL.

First, you are literally a conspiracy theorist.

No, he was charged with criminal Conspiracy Against Rights. Wow, you are a monumental dumbass! He was literally charged with, and convicted of, C-O-N-S-P-I-R-A-C-Y!

I don't have to be a conspiracy theorist--he was convicted of it. No theory necessary.

"Cadre"? Really? OK what about them? Why aren't they prosecuted?

The criminal complaint listed four co-conspirators, but only by their Twitter ID# (long alpha-numerical string).

So far, journalists have been able to determine that co-conspirator #1 was an alt-right, neo-Nazi and QAnon botmaster only known by his Internet handle "Microchip."

Co-conspirator #2 is Anthime "Baked Alaska" Gionet; a white nationalist arrested for storming the Capitol on Jan.6 and known for having participated in the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, VA.

Co-conspirator #3 is a pro-Trump far-right activist and propogandist who goes by the Internet handle "Nia."

I don't think the fourth co-conspirator has been identified yet.

The fact that Mackey was successfully prosecuted for Conspiracy likely means that the co-conspirators will be prosecuted as well, since their trials will be easier after the first conviction.

If I had to guess, I'd guess that Gionet would be the next to be prosecuted because they know their identity. Who Microchip and Nia are offline may not yet be known by the government. I believe the government only knew who Mackey was because his real name was outed in a Gab post by white nationalist GOP candidate Paul Nehlen after they had a disagreement.

Prosecution could not show EVEN ONE SINGLE voter whose legit ballot had been affected. Not one.

First, he wasn't charged with altering or tampering with ballots; he was charged with Conspiracy Against Rights, meaning they were alleging his misinformation interfered with people exercising their right to vote. So, why would the prosecution need to present altered or tampered with ballots?

Second, the government could charge Mackey with Conspiracy even if his whole group had failed to achieve any results. Conspiracy does not require a completed or successful other crime in order to be prosecuted. You are being prosecuted for conspiring to commit the other criminal act, not the other criminal act itself. The actus reus that constitutes the crime is the conspiring with others.

Sorry @blablarg18 but Tucker Carlson can try to spin this (and you can continue to mindlessly parrot him) all he wants, but Carlson's just wrong on this one, as he is about a great many things.