The govt says that his fake voting memes swayed the election. This is admitting that it’s okay to be ignorant of laws. In this case, voting laws - sure, but laws nonetheless.
EDIT: To be clear, if the govt wins, they are literally saying there is a legal defense for people who don’t know the laws around voting. And that the govt will uphold that defense. In essence, that ignorance of the law is okay and defendable.
If this kid gets tossed in the pokey, then we the people should use this case as an example of ignorance of laws being okay in the eyes of the govt.
I’m not sure the govt is seeing this angle on the case. I’m not reaching very far here. This could be a way way bigger deal than they think.
The government doesn't intend to prove that anyone was dissuaded from voting in the election. there isn't going to be a victim, so the victim's ignorance of voting laws never comes into play.
Conspiracy is pretty often used when no underlying crime has been committed (and particularly a lot on political dissidents setup by the likes of the FBI). In this case, the underlying crime would be preventing someone from voting. And conspiracy would be talking about preventing someone from voting whether or not you actually did so.
In theory the contents of his tweets don't matter at all, since it's not a speech issue. If he discussed with his buddies how to stop Hilary voters from voting by using an image of a horse's ass, and posted a picture of a horse's ass, they could charge him with the same thing.
What they will need is a conversation where Mackey and co-conspirators speak their intent. Because the criminal act is them speaking to each other, not the tweets. If he and the other guy in his chat literally discuss using memes to prevent people from voting, they're guilty.
[ - ] Prairie 1 point 1.2 yearsFeb 9, 2023 23:54:32 ago (+1/-0)
Specifically, the DOJ claims that the above meme merits a prison sentence of up to ten years, for violation of 18 U.S. Code § 241. The law, which concerns “Conspiracy against rights,” is a subset of the Enforcement Act of 1871, better known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The DOJ’s argument is that, by posting the above memes on Twitter in 2016, and designing it to resemble a Hillary Clinton ad, Mackey deceived the public into casting invalid text message votes, as part of a conspiracy to deprive them of the right to vote.
About invalidating people's votes... oh, only if it's votes for Democrats? I see.
[ + ] SocksOnCats
[ - ] SocksOnCats 4 points 1.2 yearsFeb 9, 2023 16:41:15 ago (+4/-0)
EDIT: To be clear, if the govt wins, they are literally saying there is a legal defense for people who don’t know the laws around voting. And that the govt will uphold that defense. In essence, that ignorance of the law is okay and defendable.
If this kid gets tossed in the pokey, then we the people should use this case as an example of ignorance of laws being okay in the eyes of the govt.
I’m not sure the govt is seeing this angle on the case. I’m not reaching very far here. This could be a way way bigger deal than they think.
[ + ] ReincarnatedGoat
[ - ] ReincarnatedGoat 1 point 1.2 yearsFeb 9, 2023 19:04:23 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 1 point 1.2 yearsFeb 9, 2023 20:56:24 ago (+1/-0)
The government is not admitting that.
The government doesn't intend to prove that anyone was dissuaded from voting in the election. there isn't going to be a victim, so the victim's ignorance of voting laws never comes into play.
Conspiracy is pretty often used when no underlying crime has been committed (and particularly a lot on political dissidents setup by the likes of the FBI). In this case, the underlying crime would be preventing someone from voting. And conspiracy would be talking about preventing someone from voting whether or not you actually did so.
In theory the contents of his tweets don't matter at all, since it's not a speech issue. If he discussed with his buddies how to stop Hilary voters from voting by using an image of a horse's ass, and posted a picture of a horse's ass, they could charge him with the same thing.
What they will need is a conversation where Mackey and co-conspirators speak their intent. Because the criminal act is them speaking to each other, not the tweets. If he and the other guy in his chat literally discuss using memes to prevent people from voting, they're guilty.
[ + ] prototype
[ - ] prototype 1 point 1.2 yearsFeb 9, 2023 21:01:30 ago (+1/-0)
The courts exist as the last line emergency relief valve of the regime. They're the pressure meter when the regime itself is beyond corralling.
If the regime doesn't want this used as an excuse, the courts won't allow it.
[ + ] PhantomXLII
[ - ] PhantomXLII 0 points 1.2 yearsFeb 9, 2023 20:50:46 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Prairie
[ - ] Prairie 1 point 1.2 yearsFeb 9, 2023 23:54:32 ago (+1/-0)
The DOJ’s argument is that, by posting the above memes on Twitter in 2016, and designing it to resemble a Hillary Clinton ad, Mackey deceived the public into casting invalid text message votes, as part of a conspiracy to deprive them of the right to vote.
About invalidating people's votes... oh, only if it's votes for Democrats? I see.
[ + ] boekanier
[ - ] boekanier 0 points 1.2 yearsFeb 10, 2023 01:51:24 ago (+0/-0)