Tipsheet

'Banana Republic': It Sure Looks Like Biden's DOJ Is Engaging in Political Retribution

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  January 28, 2021 9:00 PM

I was told that going after your political enemies wasn’t American, that only banana republics did that, and how dare Trump even threaten to do that to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. Well, Trump didn’t go after Hillary. She wasn’t locked up, though she should be—and how does he get repaid for that gesture after the 2020 election? The Biden Department of Justice is going after social media influencers for making pro-Make America Great Again memes four years ago. No, I’m not kidding. This is apparently a criminal conspiracy, which lawyer Aaron Worthing noted was a “dubious” interpretation of the statute.

Here’s the press release on the charges:

The complaint alleges that in 2016, Mackey established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Election, ranking his account above outlets and individuals such as NBC News (#114), Stephen Colbert (#119) and Newt Gingrich (#141).

As alleged in the complaint, between September 2016 and November 2016, in the lead up to the Nov. 8, 2016, U.S. Presidential Election, Mackey conspired with others to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages designed to encourage supporters of one of the presidential candidates (the “Candidate”) to “vote” via text message or social media, a legally invalid method of voting.

For example, on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for [the Candidate]” sign.  The image included the following text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[Candidate’s first name]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [the Candidate] and be a part of history.”  The fine print at the bottom of the image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by [Candidate] for President 2016.”

The tweet included the typed hashtags “#Go [Candidate]” and another slogan frequently used by the Candidate. On or about and before Election Day 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “[Candidate’s first name]” or some derivative to the 59925 text number, which was used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by the defendant and his co-conspirators.

Liberal reporter Michael Tracey added, “Democrats have only controlled the government for a week and pro-Trump online trolls are already being indicted for criminal ‘conspiracies’ involving the posting of memes on Twitter in 2016.”

“Pretty sure part of the vast criminal ‘conspiracy’ entailed tweeting fake images of Taylor Swift wearing a MAGA hat,” Tracey added.

“I’m not sure whether it’s hilarious or scary as hell that they’re essentially indicting someone making memes,” wrote Donald Trump, Jr. 

Recommended

BREAKING: RFK Jr. Has Landed a Nomination in the Trump Administration Katie Pavlich
Did You Notice What's Suddenly Missing From AOC's Twitter Bio? Matt Vespa

Sean Davis at The Federalist also shook his head in disbelief and disgust.

“This is insane. Hillary Clinton paid a foreign operative to defraud the FBI, which then defrauded a federal court, to sway the 2016 election. No charges there. But a vile internet troll who peddled a dumb meme in 2016? That’s a federal crime in 2021.”

Look, Vaugh is no saint. I’m not endorsing his views at all, but he has a right to hold those horrid views. Free speech is free speech, not matter who is saying what because this—right here—is pretty scary albeit a tad comical. The government arrests you for creating memes that liberals don’t like. You know a Democrat-run DOJ is going to take this for a spin. Who’s next? It’s certainly something to keep an eye on as Democrats plot to enact a domestic war on terror agenda here at home that is bound to shred constitutional rights. We’ll have more on that later.