Appeals court overturns Douglas Mackey’s conviction for sharing memes targeted at Hillary Clinton voters in 2016

An appeals court has overturned the conviction of Douglass Mackey, who was jailed after sharing memes against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, Fox News reported. The pro-Trump poster was convicted of conspiracy charges and sentenced to seven months in federal prison in 2023.

Mackey, who called himself an internet “troll” as he posted under the handle “Ricky Vaughn,” had a moderately successful Twitter account with nearly 58,000 followers. He was a fan of Donald Trump, the GOP candidate at the time, and posted one meme telling prospective Clinton voters to cast their votes by text.

He was sentenced to federal prison by a Brooklyn jury for this, which many believed was outrageously unfair. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit agreed and reversed that verdict, finding that “no rational jury” should have convicted him.

The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the misleading memes did not constitute the crime of conspiracy for which he was convicted and jailed. “The jury’s verdict and the resulting judgment of conviction must be set aside,” wrote Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston.

Judges’ Decision

According to the New York Post, Mackey’s online activity consisted of sharing memes, some of them misleading people about when and where to vote. He would sometimes tailor them to specific voting blocs, but they were only seen by a relatively small number of users.

Mackey also would sometimes enter chat rooms and attempt to persuade others to vote for Trump. After reviewing the lower court’s ruling, the appeals court found that convicting the 36-year-old for this activity was incorrect, especially on the conspiracy angle.

“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 [federal law]. The government was obligated to show that Mackey knowingly entered into an agreement with other people to pursue that objective,” Livingston wrote.

“This, the government failed to do,” she added. Not only was the premise faulty, but the evidence they presented failed to support the conviction, aside from the memes Mackey shared.

The judge wrote that evidence “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,” Livingston wrote. “Yet the government failed to offer sufficient evidence that Mackey even viewed — let alone participated in — any of these exchanges,” she added.

Grave Injustice

Many Trump supporters agreed that the appeals court was correct to overturn the conviction in light of the evidence, or rather, lack thereof. Mackey celebrated the victory with a “HALLELUJAH!” in a post to X, formerly Twitter on Wednesday.

“Now we sue,” Mackey promised. Others who weighed in on social media pointed out how wrong the government got this in the first place, including attorney and podcaster Eric Matheny.

“Douglass Mackey went to prison for posting (not even creating) a Hillary meme in 2016. It was one of the greatest injustices of the last 10 years. This is a victory, but it can never give him back the time and quality of life the US government stole from him,” Matheny wrote.

Douglass Mackey went to prison for posting (not even creating) a Hillary meme in 2016.

It was one of the greatest injustices of the last 10 years.

This is a victory, but it can never give him back the time and quality of life the US government stole from him. pic.twitter.com/NHOIeNLwZh

— Eric Matheny 🎙️ (@ericmmatheny) July 9, 2025

Clinton and her minions were sore losers and are no doubt furious that Mackey has won the day. It’s a very good thing that this wrong was righted, but it never should have happened in the first place.