Pay no attention to the man behind the Twitter handle.
That’s the defense that lawyers floated for the anti-Hillary Clinton Twitter troll Douglas Mackey, who is currently on trial for tricking voters into thinking they could text their ballots in the 2016 presidential election for the former first lady.
The government’s key witness, who was identified only by his social media handle “Microchip,” testified that he observed Mackey posting actively on group chats like “War Room” and “Mad Men” about the effort to undermine Clinton’s presidential bid with whatever dirty tricks could be mustered.
Microchip pleaded guilty to the same charge that Mackey now faces — conspiracy against rights in regard to election interference.
Mackey’s defense lawyer Andrew Frisch called his client’s behavior “s–tposting” and insisted that the two internet trolls never worked together.
“But Mr. Microchip and Mr. Mackey never had a phone call, a message,” Frisch told the jury. “The government charged and must prove a conspiracy. Without Mr. Microchip, there is no conspiracy. Without Mr. Microchip, all these people on the internet and in chatrooms are just people on the internet and in chatrooms.”
Prosecutors showed realistic tweets that promised Clinton supporters could save time by texting their votes.
“Avoid the line. Vote from home. Text Hillary to 59925,” one Twitter post read.
Frisch said that the government couldn’t produce any witnesses that testified that they were tricked by the ruse, but the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn said that 4,900 people texted to the number.
The defense attorney also accused the government of prosecuting Mackey because of his political leanings.
“This case is not about free speech, it is not about political speech,” Assistant U.S. Attorney William Gulotta said in a rebuttal.
“There’s no speech,” he added. “You can’t use your words to commit fraud …You can’t use your words to trick people out of…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply