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The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Mackey with election interference in January 2021, accusing him of a conspiracy to spread 鈥渕isinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.鈥� The DOJ leveled these charges in connection with a November 2016 stunt in which Mackey encouraged people to vote for Hillary Clinton by text message by disseminating an online flyer.

The online flyer Mackey distributed featured images of a Black person in front of an 鈥淎frican Americans for [Hillary Clinton]鈥� sign, urging voters to text in their votes. Nearly 5,000 people fell for Mackey鈥檚 detailed ploy, according to . An unnamed co-conspirator who operated in Mackey鈥檚 online circles in 2016 has cooperated with the investigation, .

A pseudonymous star of the 鈥渁lt-right鈥� era

As his Twitter and Gab-based pseudonym Ricky Vaughn, which borrows Charlie Sheen鈥檚 character name from the 1989 film Major League, Mackey proved to be an influential figure in the so-called alt-right movement. Mackey鈥檚 posts helped launder overt white supremacist talking points into the mainstream of the conservative movement. MIT Media Lab listed him as the 107th most influential social media personality during the 2016 election.

On Twitter in 2016, Twitter users interested in politics commonly stumbled across Mackey鈥檚 Ricky Vaughn account. He posted rapidly and at a high volume. Archives show that Mackey averaged over 100 tweets and retweets per day between 2014 and 2016. He mixed more benign news articles with more sinister fare, including links to the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer and racist and antisemitic memes.

As Ricky Vaughn, Mackey messaged this Hatewatch reporter in 2017 over Gab to express racist, unscientific views about how people of different racial backgrounds produced inferior children. Around that time, he networked with a who鈥檚 who of white supremacists, including Andrew Anglin of Daily Stormer, Mike Peinovich, now of National Justice Party, and disgraced former Department of State official Matt Gebert. Mackey also became central to a debate in the white supremacist movement over 鈥渙ptics,鈥� or how the movement should market itself. Mackey held that the movement should eschew heavy-handedness, like flags with hate symbols and the SS costumes favored by groups like the National Socialist Movement, and focus instead on blending in with mainstream conservatives.

From disappearance to cause c茅l猫bre

Reporter Luke O鈥橞rien identified Mackey in a HuffPost story published , and around that time, Mackey called this Hatewatch reporter on the phone. In an hour-long conversation, Mackey confessed that his parents had become displeased with him and that they wanted him to seek help for internet addiction. Mackey never contacted this reporter again.

Mackey鈥檚 Ricky Vaughn persona seemed to disappear from the web until the DOJ produced these charges in January 2021. After the DOJ charged Mackey, he emerged as a cause c茅l猫bre among anti-democracy, radical-right figures, who have depicted him as a victim of state oppression. Daily Stormer and other racist websites raised money for his defense. Fox News鈥� Tucker Carlson inaccurately described Mackey as a 鈥渃onservative journalist鈥� on his show in January 2021. Following Carlson鈥檚 segment, an anonymous person dropped $60,000 to Mackey in Bitcoin, buoying his defense, as Hatewatch previously reported.

Mackey鈥檚 trial will be held at the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York.

Editor's note: Following four days of deliberation, a jury reached a verdict.

Photo illustration by 人兽性交.