West Palm Beach man faces federal charges for voter disinformation campaign in 2016 election
Douglass Mackey, 31, arrested Wednesday morning
By: Erik Altmann
Posted at 1:23 PM, Jan 27, 2021
and last updated 4:32 PM, Jan 27, 2021
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A prominent Twitter troll from 2016 whose accounts were suspended by the social media platform has been charged in federal court with knowingly spreading disinformation in the wake of the 2016 presidential election in an attempt to influence voters' behaviors, according to court records.
Douglass Mackey, aka Ricky Vaughn, made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach on Wednesday morning. The complaint and affidavit in support of an arrest warrant was filed under seal in the Eastern District of New York. Mackey was a resident of New York at the time.
According to the complaint, Mackey and others conspired to injure, oppress threaten or intimidate people's right to vote, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241.
"Specifically, in or about and between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey, together with his co-conspirators, formulated, created and disseminated information over social media that claimed, among other things, that supporters of a presidential candidate from one of the two main political parties (the "Candidate" could and should vote for the candidate by posting a specific hashtag on Twitter or Facebook, or by texting the Candidate's first name to a specific telephone text code (the "Text Code")," the complaint said.
The complaint accuses Mackey and others of conspiring "to design and distribute these messages with the intent that supporters of the candidate would believe the fraudulent information contained therein, attempt to cast their votes via social media or text message and, as a result, fail to cast their vote in the Election in a legally valid manner."
Stuart Kaplan, a former FBI agent who now practices law in Palm Beach County, told Contact 5 the case is a "first-of-its-kind."
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https://www.wptv.com/news/local-news/investigations/west-palm-beach-man-faces-federal-charges-for-voter-disinformation-campaign-in-2016-election
