BREAKING: Meme maker Douglass Mackey's conviction unanimously THROWN OUT by appellate court

Douglass Mackey, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration over a meme, has seen his conviction tossed by the Second Circuit Court of appeals. Mackey broke the news on X, saying in all caps "Breaking: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out my conviction for lack of evidence. The case has ben remanded to the district court with orders to immediately dismiss."

"Praise God," Mackey added, who had been sentenced to 7 months in federal prison after his conviction. After his March 2023 conviction, the appellate court sided with Mackey that December and dropped the prison sentence until the appeal had been completed.

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. And in the absence of such evidence, the government’s remaining circumstantial evidence cannot alone establish Mackey’s knowing agreement. Accordingly, the jury's verdict and the resulting judgement conviction must be set aside," the court states.


The meme in question

"Mackey was convicted of conspiring to injure citizens in the exercise of their right to vote in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241 based on three memes he posted or reposted on Twitter shortly before the 2016 presidential election. These memes falsely suggested that supporters of then-candidate Hillary Clinton could vote by text message. On appeal, Mackey argues, inter alia, that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he knowingly agreed to join the charged conspiracy. We agree," the ruling states.

The court stated that "At various times throughout 2016, Mackey was a member of several direct message groups, three of which are particularly relevant here: the 'War Room,' 'Micro Chat,' and 'Madman #2.' In these groups, members shared pro-Trump and anti-Clinton messages and memes and discussed strategies to make their posts trend and go viral on Twitter. ... Like most of Mackey’s tweets, the exchanges in these groups generally fell
within the scope of lawful—albeit sometimes 'outrageous' or 'silly'—political speech."

Mackey spoke out after the appellate court ruling in 2023 suspended his prison sentence pending appeal, saying "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."

That court has just thrown out the conviction entirely. Mackey said the ruling was a "unanimous decision by both Republican and Democrat judges."

"I would like to thank God, thank my family, thank my beautiful wife, attorney Andrew Frisch, the incredible attorneys at Jones Day, and YOU—the friends who prayed and donated and spread the word since day one," he wrote.

Mackey also noted "I can finally get my guns back."

When he was convicted, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said "One of the foundational rights we hold as Americans, a right that many fought so hard to obtain, is the right to vote.  The defendant weaponized disinformation in a dangerous scheme to stop targeted groups, including black and brown people and women, from participating in our democracy. This groundbreaking prosecution demonstrates our commitment to prosecuting those who commit crimes that threaten our democracy and seek to deprive people of their constitutional right to vote."

The Department of Justice did not investigate a joke posted by a Hillary Clinton supporter who advised Trump supporters to vote the day after election day. 

mackey 2nd circuit-2025-07-09-100532 by The Post Millennial on Scribd