Do you still believe in free speech?
Apparently, the parameters of the First Amendment are getting smaller and smaller.
A Trump voter has been thrown in jail for a sentence of 7 months.
Why?
No… it wasn’t because he committed violence on January 6th.
It was because he posted memes – yes, memes – on Twitter.
I guess you can’t make jokes anymore now.
He was politically persecuted and targeted under the guise of “election interference.”
There’s only one problem.
There’s absolutely no proof that he was/is a foreign agent.
He was just expressing his First Amendment right.
Even if you don’t like Donald Trump, this should alarm you.
Freedom of speech is the bedrock of our democracy!
Will U.S. v. Ricky Vaughn end up at the Supreme Court? https://t.co/i5pSD2YZt8
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 19, 2023
Ricky Vaughn is yet another proof that the Republic is sliding towards totalitarianism. If you anger the Totalitarian Party… you pay the price. Ricky angered Hillary Clinton… so of course he must pay. You love your freedoms? Want them protected? Then STOP voting Democrat! -VJ https://t.co/DuyzuwLvmJ
— RealVinnieJames (@RealVinnieJames) October 18, 2023
🚨🚨🚨Ricky Vaughn/Doug Mackey sentenced to 7 months 🚨🚨🚨
All royalties from our book After the War go directly to Mackey’s legal defense fund!! An appeal is likely, so he still needs our support.
Stories from BAP, Raw Egg, Lomez, and more!https://t.co/T9oCQz7YCy
— Passage Publishing (@PassagePress) October 18, 2023
He posted a meme joking that Hillary Clinton voters could “text” their vote in the 2016.
It was clearly a joke.
And quite frankly, any adult who actually believed that… well maybe they need to do more research before voting.
Breitbart reports:
An Obama-appointed judge in New York City has sentenced Douglas Mackey, who operated the influential pro-MAGA Twitter account “Ricky Vaughn” in 2016, to seven months behind bars for “election interference.”
Mackey was arrested by the DOJ shortly after Joe Biden took office in 2021. The case brought against him alleged that he interfered in the 2016 election because of a joke tweet telling people to “text their vote” to Hillary Clinton’s campaign line.
Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak broke down the legal case against Mackey shortly after his arrest, noting that a leftist comedian posted exactly the same joke in reverse and faced no legal repercussions:
The criminal complaint alleges that “at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers” sent a message with the candidate’s name to the number given, “on or about and before Election Day.”
It does not say whether any of them refrained from casting a real vote.
Neither the complaint nor the FBI’s accompanying press release explains, however, how the government plans to survive a First Amendment challenge.
The law makes it a crime to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right.” It does not specifically say anything about providing false information.
We cannot over-emphasize that Democrats did the same thing!
There were MANY Democrat accounts telling Republicans to vote via text.
How many of them have been arrested?
How many of them have been charged?
How many of them are facing court dates and jail time?
Absolutely none.
So why is this MAGA influencer any different?
I think we know the answer… and the double standard should alarm any level-headed American.
what is the difference in this and one by Ricky Vaughn and he will be in prison 7 months then 2 years probation . If there is not 2 sides of justice, why is she in prison or awaiting trial???? pic.twitter.com/cZuK8KlYy5
— Prayerfully Hopeful (@IBoptimist) October 19, 2023
🚨 JUST IN: Douglass Mackey, popularly known by his online pseudonym “Ricky Vaughn,” has been sentenced to SEVEN MONTHS in prison for posting Hillary Clinton memes.
So much for Freedom of Speech!https://t.co/p0NNZw6Me1
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) October 18, 2023
https://twitter.com/DogRightGirl/status/1714691740219724023
If you’re going to punish people for this, then do it on both sides.
Punish the Democrats who duped Republicans into voting by text.
Somehow… I doubt that will happen.
It’s clear that there are two systems of justice in this country.
The New York Times has more details:
A digital-age dirty-trickster who used Twitter posts that looked like Hillary Clinton ads to spread false information before the 2016 presidential election was sentenced on Tuesday to seven months in prison.
During a trial last spring, prosecutors presented evidence that the man, Douglass Mackey, had joined private Twitter groups where participants reveled in using lies and deceit on behalf of Donald J. Trump, carrying out what one participant termed “the deep psyops of meme war.”
Much of that activity was protected by the First Amendment, prosecutors said. But they argued that Mr. Mackey committed a crime days before the election when, using the name Ricky Vaughn, he posted images targeting Black and Latino voters that claimed it was possible to vote by text message. The idea, prosecutors said, was to suppress votes for Mrs. Clinton.
One of the images showed a Black woman and another one had a message in Spanish. Both included logos resembling the Clinton campaign’s and fine print attributing them to “Hillary for President.”
If someone can be thrown into jail for posting memes, how much longer until the rest of free speech is attacked?
Posting a meme online only takes a few clicks.
It’s a simple thing.
Are we really going to let our society jail people for posting the “incorrect” thing online?
Government and leftist overreach has gone to far.
It’s time to return to normalcy.
And by that, I mean that it’s time to return to common sense!