Why I was sentenced to 7 months in jail for posting a meme
January 27, 2021, was an ordinary morning that turned into a nightmare when FBI agents rolled up at my doorstep at 7 am. Before I knew it, I was facing the reality of a funny joke on social media spiraling into a fight for my life.
I’m Doug Mackey, better known to some by my old online persona, ‘Ricky Vaughn’, and for the past three-and-a-half years I have been prosecuted for ‘election interference’ after posting a satirical meme in November 2016 about voting by text.
The case against me was never just about a meme; it was a test case to see just how far the regime could push a lawfare scheme aimed at silencing political dissent and free speech. Last week, the UK government pushed the same idea even further, handing out lengthy prison sentences for posts on social media that draw attention to the consequences of UK policies of mass migration.
In the USA, I was patient zero. Later, the Biden/Harris DOJ used the precedent of my example to go after pro-life campaigners and even President Trump. That’s right: myself, pro-life protesters, and Donald Trump have all been prosecuted, or are being prosecuted, under a stretched definition of the same obscure statute in a crackdown on political dissent in America.
That statute is 18 USC 241, a Civil War-era statute aimed at the KKK, which makes it a federal crime to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any American in the exercise of his civil rights.
You may wonder, why is the Biden regime prosecuting people posting election jokes, singing songs of protest at abortion clinics, and even Donald Trump under a federal felony intended to stop the KKK from physically intimidating, or even lynching, black voters at polling stations? As Reason magazine recently outlined, the Biden administration’s use of 18 USC 241 is not an isolated anomaly but part of a strategy to manipulate the law against its political opponents. The DOJ performed a similar stretch when it deployed an Enron-era statute against evidence and document manipulation against people who protested at the US Capitol on January 6.
In that case, the DOJ was recently slapped down by the Supreme Court in a bipartisan decision ruling that the federal government had illegally overstepped in its boundless interpretation of federal law. In my case, currently under appeal, the federal criminal code was used to categorize a political joke as a felony.
The effective application of these tactics sets a chilling precedent: today, it’s a meme; tomorrow, it could be any form of political dissent. But two recent Supreme Court rulings from this summer have shed some light on the weakness of my conviction. The Court’s rulings in Snyder v. United States and Fischer v. United States delineate a clear trend in federal law going back two decades or so: the courts are tightening vague laws, and stressing the need for clarity as to where federal law applies.
My appeal, which argues that the application of 18 USC 241 to my case was inappropriate and dangerously broad, is supported by these recent findings. We outlined this in a letter submitted to the court.
All of this has taken a toll on myself and my family. Balancing the demands of a legal battle with the responsibilities of supporting a family and a baby who was born premature and with health problems necessitating a series of surgeries has been the toughest challenge of my life. But this fight must be fought, because what is at stake is not only my own vindication but also the persecutory power of a lawless regime.
As I keep fighting, I encourage everyone who cares about free speech to think about what my case means for all of us. It’s not just about my fight against a felony charge for sharing a meme — it’s about protecting our collective right to speak freely without fear of political repression through lawfare.
My case is one of the most important fights for free speech in America right now, and not only. I could’ve taken the easy way out, but I chose to take a stand — for myself, for all of you, and for the American way of life. If my conviction sticks, it’s going to hurt us all. We can win this case and set a precedent of freedom and liberty for all Americans, and for the rest of the world.
Douglass Mackey is an American social media influencer who posted under the alias Ricky Vaughn.
Anyone who cares about internet freedom and America’s foundation of freedom can help support my defense. You can contribute via:
– The Meme Defense Fund (memedefensefund.com): A tax-deductible, 501(c)3 non-profit foundation.
– GiveSendGo (givesendgo.com/douglassmackeycase)
– Direct Mail: Send cash, check, or money order made out to Douglass Mackey, PO Box 6332, Delray Beach, FL 33482
– Bitcoin: bc1qp53hutv9d0qngyvm3wcxeyhnp0srcysghnrhj9
– Ethereum: 0xBb078c6823B0d0d35738aa55f0a7F36CA37e4434
– Litecoin: ltc1qp7m4ll7ckw77jtraj9rl7xuve56q45d850k4dq
– Monero: 41kkLhRfRXVJo9ts5pdZcJ3LUUddhtTsLTMWKi8bi32Ve1Djmz7GxBF957hTyh4yPfK3XxYCQGXYTdv4ur46mjJp5NJZaUi
