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Douglass Mackey Prison Sentence Postponed by Appeals Court in Meme Case

Mackey was sentenced to 7 months in federal prison for 2016 meme instructing Hillary Clinton supporters to vote via text

Published: December 4, 2023
  |   By Chris Karr
Douglass Mackey Prison Sentence Postponed by Appeals Court in Meme Case

Douglass Mackey’s prison sentence for election interference has been stayed by a federal appeals court judge.


Mackey, who shared a meme encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to vote via text message in 2016, was convicted of the charge of Conspiracy Against Rights in March of 2023. In October, he was sentenced to seven months in federal prison.

Today, Mackey announced on X that the District Court decision had been overruled by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

“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,” he wrote. “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.”

He added: “If we lose the appeal in the Second Circuit, we will swiftly file an appeal with the Supreme Court.”


The court order notes that the government’s response to the appeals court decision is due on or before Feb. 5, 2024. Mackey’s reply brief will be due about two weeks after that date.

Mackey’s fundraising site, Meme Defense Fund, provides several details that preceded his conviction.

“On January 26, 2021–six days after Joe Biden was inaugurated– eight FBI and other law enforcement agents showed up at Douglass Mackey’s home and arrested him on felony charges with a ten-year maximum sentence,” the site states. “Despite living in Florida, Mackey was prosecuted in the Eastern District of New York before two liberal judges and was convicted.”

“As proven at trial, by 2016, Mackey had established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers,” per the Justice Department. “A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as one of the most significant influencers of the then-upcoming presidential election. Between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users … to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of ... Hillary Clinton to ‘vote’ via text message or social media which was legally invalid.”

The Justice Department goes on to note that after Mackey tweeted the initial offending meme, he tweeted “an image depicting a woman seated at a conference room typing a message on her cell phone. This deceptive image was written in Spanish and mimicked a font used by the Clinton campaign in authentic ads. The image also included a copy of the Clinton campaign’s logo and the ‘ImWithHer’ hashtag.”

In response to Mackey’s conviction, Joe Rogan said of the original meme, “You shouldn’t be able to vote … if you get duped by that.”

Elon Musk weighed in at the time by saying the conviction was “over the top … They went too far. … If that’s the standard for throwing someone in prison, then there should be a lot of people in prison.”




In a Nov. 9 post featuring his interview with Mackey, Tucker Carlson declared, “The First Amendment is done.”


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