Man Receives Prison Sentence for Attempting to Disrupt Voting for Trump Through X

A social media influencer who supported Trump has been sentenced to seven months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to discourage potentially thousands of individuals who favored former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

The individual in question, Douglass Mackey, who was 33 at the time of his conviction in March, has also been fined $15,000. Known as Ricky Vaughn to his 58,000 Twitter followers, Mackey conspired to disseminate deceptive messages and advertisements targeting Black and female voters.

In the lead-up to the 2016 election, these Twitter ads falsely informed voters that they could avoid long lines at polling stations by sending a text message with “Hillary” to a five-digit phone number. Notably, voting via text is not a legitimate method in the United States.

During the trial, the prosecution highlighted Mackey’s history of expressing beliefs that disparaged Black individuals as confused and unintelligent, as well as his belief that women should not have the right to vote. Prosecutors also pointed to Mackey’s podcast appearances and social media posts in which he espoused these views.

In the days leading up to Election Day and on the day itself, at least 4,900 phone numbers sent texts containing “Hillary” or variations thereof, as per a press release from prosecutors. These phone numbers were associated with multiple deceptive campaign images that Mackey and his co-conspirators tweeted.

It remains uncertain whether anyone refrained from voting as a result of Mackey’s scheme. Prosecutors noted that 99% of the texts sent to that number occurred after Mackey initially posted a deceptive Hillary advertisement from one of his social media accounts.

Andrew Frisch, Mackey’s attorney, expressed optimism about the prospects of an appeal, which has not yet been pursued.