The United States charged a fictional mohawk-wearing character from the movie Major League, with election interference. It did so under a statute that never men

The United States charged a fictional mohawk-wearing character from the movie Major League, with election interference. It did so under a statute that never mentions “election interference.” In the leadup to the 2016 presidential election, “Ricky Vaughn” (in real life Doug Mackey) had about 58,000 Twitter followers (Account 1). Most, if not all his followers were either jobless idiots, trolls, or fellow meme-makers. In October 2016, his first account was suspended for violating Twitter rules. Mackey belonged to a chat group in which his fellow jerks speculated about how to post memes that would get the best reaction. With his first account banned, one of his “co-conspirators” gave Mackey an account with about 9,000 followers (Account 2). Mackey changed the avatar to the MAGA hat-wearing Ricky Vaughn avatar. It was from that account that Mackey posted a meme that resulted in his arrest for election interference. He wasn’t charged for four years. He won’t go to trial until six years after the fact. March 20, 2023. Based on the Complaint’s allegations, Mackey seems to be motivated by equal parts of racism and attention-seeking. What is less clear is how a meme that, in my opinion, couldn’t motivate anyone with a working frontal lobe to “vote by text” could result in a charge of election interference.