The jury for the trial of an online influencer charged with election interference has wrapped up its second full day of deliberation without reaching a verdict.
After more than two days of deliberation starting Monday afternoon, members of the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the case of Douglass Mackey, who is on trial for a charge of allegedly conspiring against people’s right to vote with memes—or generally satirical online images—including one that instructed people to vote by text during the 2016 presidential election.
The jury will continue its deliberations on Thursday.
Ricky Vaughn
Mackey’s online persona “Ricky Vaughn”—a reference to the sports comedy film “Major League”—had a loyal online following during the 2016 presidential election that amplified his pro-Republican voice during the 2016 elections.One of Mackey’s memes, which grabbed the attention of FBI agents during the 2016 election, instructed voters to text a number to vote for Hillary Clinton.
“Avoid the line. Vote from home. Text Hillary to 59925,” reads a meme posted online by Mackey on Nov. 1, 2016, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Turner Buford presented to the jury as evidence on March 20.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), based on that meme and records of online discussions between Mackey and his peers, charged Mackey with conspiring against the right to vote. Authorities arrested Mackey in January 2021, and a grand jury indicted him within two weeks of his arrest.
While the DOJ has prosecuted many other forms of election interference—based on violence, for example— Mackey’s case is likely a historical first where alleged falsehoods are being argued as a form of election interference, as Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law specializing in First Amendment Law, told The Epoch Times in an interview earlier in March.
The unusual case has gathered spectators from Washington and elsewhere, who observed arguments between the prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn and Andrew Frisch, Mackey’s defense lawyer.
During the trial, Frisch focused on portraying Mackey’s memes as satirical in the eyes of a reasonable person. Satire is implicitly protected by the First Amendment.
“Why would someone share a meme that you would vote for POTUS … without disclosing your name … or proving that you are of voting age?” asked Frisch rhetorically during the trial’s opening statements on March 20.
Across the aisle, the prosecutors said Mackey was one of the orchestrators of a deception campaign whose “phony digital flyers” caused material injury to voters who took his jokes seriously and believed that they could vote for Hillary by text without any need to present their name or ID for the poll.
Witness testimony in Mackey’s trial came from those alleged to be Mackey’s co-conspirators, federal agents who were involved in Mackey’s investigations, and Mackey himself.
During cross-examination last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Paulsen grilled Mackey on his Twitter posts in 2016, which included statements that said black people were gullible and that unmarried women should not vote.
In response to Paulsen’s questions, Mackey said he no longer holds those beliefs.
During direct examination by his attorney, Mackey appeared to show remorse on the witness stand.
“To my family,” Mackey said, after Frisch asked him if he had apologized to anyone for his online posts.
“Because it was in bad taste. It was wrong. It was offensive.”
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