For example, they said, Mackey tweeted a photo of a woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign. “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” the tweet said. “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement that Mackey “weaponized disinformation in a dangerous scheme to stop targeted groups, including black and brown people and women, from participating in our democracy.”
Mackey’s attorney, Andrew Frisch, asked in a memorandum to the judge that his client be spared prison. Frisch said that Mackey started psychotherapy in 2018 in an effort to change his life and “is not Ricky Vaughn of seven years ago.”
Judge Ann M. Donnelly denied the request. The New York Times reports that before issuing his sentence, Donnelly said Mackey had been “one of the leading members” of a conspiracy that was “nothing short of an assault on our democracy.”