Mackey’s prosecution appears to be the first instance in which the Justice Department has used § 241 to combat the distribution of election disinformation. The department seemed to hint as much in a November 2023 hearing on Mackey’s motion for release pending appeal: “I think it’s fair to say that a case exactly like this has not been prosecuted,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Paulsen. This novelty is key to Mackey’s arguments on appeal. He contends that § 241 does not apply to schemes to trick voters out of casting a ballot, and that the government’s understanding of the statute would “render it grotesquely overbroad under the First Amendment”—sweeping in all kinds of protected speech and allowing the Justice Department to prosecute a vast range of conduct. “The Government’s theory would equally prohibit false statements bearing on whether to vote,” Mackey argues in his opening brief before the Second Circuit, along with “every lie told about a candidate’s background, endorsements, or policies, whether to promote or undermine the candidate” in the eyes of potential voters. First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh similarly warned in an amicus brief that this reading “would dramatically expand Section 241’s scope and transform it into a boundless, indeterminate criminal prohibition on any speech that the government (later) deems injurious to constitutional rights.” What’s more, the specifics of the statute are such that the government must show that § 241 defendants had fair notice of violating “clearly established” law. How, Mackey says, could he have known of a “clearly established” prohibition on deceiving voters when such a case had never been prosecuted? “What we have here is an extremely vicious dog that has not barked,” argued Mackey’s attorney Yaakov Roth before the Second Circuit on Friday. (Roth also argued that the government lacked venue to bring the case in the Eastern District of New York.) READ: lawfaremedia.org/article/does-a… DONATE: douglassmackey.com
@DougMackeyCase In other words there was no precedent to which any defendent could be forewarned?
@DougMackeyCase Hawaii doesn’t allow Polygamy, so Obama's Mother forged her last name and Hillary may have used this to escape Comey indictment for email server obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/…
@DougMackeyCase Just do your time in the can and come out renewed like the German Chancellor. I'm not donating to a rigged case (It's a show trial) but I will donate to you personally.