Critics are wondering whether the Biden-Harris Department of Justice will hold Jimmy Kimmel to the same standard to which it held pro-Trump social media influencer Douglass Mackey, who was convicted for supposed "election interference" and sentenced to prison last year for memes.
There is cause to be skeptical. After all, the DOJ has a habit of holding conservatives to a higher standard than its ideological allies.
Former Trump advisers Stephen Bannon and Peter Navarro were convicted for supposed contempt of Congress, whereas Attorney General Merrick Garland and former Attorney General Eric Holder got off scot-free. The proudly pro-abortion DOJ has almost exclusively targeted pro-life activists when it comes to FACE Act charges. The same DOJ adopted a draconian and in some cases "fact-free approach" when prosecuting Jan. 6 protesters after previously treating Black Lives Matter rioters with kid gloves.
The titular host of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" has recently made a number of desperate appeals to potential voters, asking them to get out and vote — just not for President Donald Trump.
In his monologue Wednesday, the Harris booster said, "You have to vote. If you can vote early, vote early. If you can't vote early, vote on time. If you want to vote for Trump, vote late. Vote very late. Do your voting on Thursday or maybe Friday."
'Biden's DOJ sent Douglass Mackey to prison for sharing this same joke.'
Libs of TikTok responded, "Wasn't Douglass Mackey sentenced to prison for doing something similar? Will @TheJusticeDept investigate Jimmy Kimmel?"
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) noted, "Douglass Mackey was sent to prison for this."
"Biden's DOJ sent Douglass Mackey to prison for sharing this same joke about Hillary," tweeted former Salomon Brothers and Citigroup investment banker John LeFevre. "Another example of the weaponized lawfare and two-tiered justice that awaits us if Kamala wins."
Mackey chimed in, tweeting, "Jimmy Kimmel told his joke to an audience of millions. The joke meme I sent out didn't even reach more than 100 people until Buzzfeed and Wired reported on it."
Mackey was arrested in 2021, convicted in New York for supposed "election interference," and sentenced in October 2023 to seven months in prison by an Obama-appointed judge, Ann M. Donnelly.
At the time, Trump said, "They're putting Douglass Mackey in jail for sharing a joking meme about Hillary Clinton seven years ago. Nobody ever heard of anything like that."
According to the Biden-Harris DOJ, "Between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to 'vote' via text message or social media which was legally invalid."
The Intercept noted that there is no federal law against lying about election mechanisms or the electoral process. Mackey was instead indicted under a Reconstruction-era statue known as Section 241 or the "Ku Klux Klan Act," which prohibits conspiring to "injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person" trying to exercise a constitutionally or federally protected right.
The DOJ was evidently proud of the mental gymnastics required to charge the Clinton critic, stating that his prosecution was "groundbreaking."
Mackey is appealing his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court, should that fail.
According to Mackey and amici curiae, "The First Amendment tolerates narrow, clear statutes that target knowingly false speech concerning the time, place, and manner, or other technical mechanics of an election. But Section 241 is not such a statute. This Court should reverse the decision of the district court."
"When I made an election joke, the Deep State used it as a pretext to conduct a fishing expedition against me, subpoenaing all financial records, leases, employment information and pay stubs, and email accounts. Will Jimmy Kimmel enjoy the same?" Mackey tweeted on Thursday.
'Force these scumbags to live by their own rules.'
One X user noted that Kimmel's "violation is worse than what [Mackey was] convicted for, and he transmitted this over federally licensed airwaves. The @FCC, @FBI, #FEC and #DOJ should be contacted, @ABC should be immediately sanctioned, and @Jimmykimmel needs to be investigated. Anything less is selective and preferential justice."
Rob Eno, Blaze Media's director of content marketing, quipped, "It would be a real shame if everyone flooded the US DOJ crime tip line and ask them to charge Jimmy Kimmel with the same crime they charged Douglass Mackey with. A real shame. I'm not telling you to to go this link and do it."
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh tweeted, "I'm dead serious when I say if Trump wins he should have Jimmy Kimmel arrested and jailed. Force these scumbags to live by their own rules."
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Say what you will about Joe Biden, but the man certainly is a dreamer.
Biden has recently shared massive infrastructure plans for not just America but the entire globe — and some have been left wondering whether the president is capable of accomplishing such impossible feats.
“We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean. We have plans to build in Angola, one of the largest solar plants in the world,” Biden told a crowd this week.
“I could go on but I’m not. I’m going off script, I’m gonna’ get in trouble,” the president added.
Pat Gray and Keith Malinak are impressed.
“He’s an innovator,” Malinak jokes.
“It’s an 8,000 mile railroad, so that’s pretty good,” Gray adds.
“I would say it’s ambitious,” he continues, “especially considering that there’s never been a railroad built across an ocean.”
Gray is concerned that Biden has never heard of airplanes before.
“Does he know about air travel? Has he heard there’s something called ‘air-travel,’” Gray continues.
Gray has more questions.
“Why would you build a railway across the Pacific and Indian Oceans? Why would you do that?”
“Will it be an elevated track when it goes across India?”
To enjoy more of Pat's biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Douglass Mackey was convicted of election interference in a New York federal court Friday in a case involving 2016 social media posts inaccurately claiming people could cast votes via texting.
"Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election," stated Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
"Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the vote," Peace also said.
Mackey, age 33, is also known as "Ricky Vaughn." He faces up to 10 years in prison after a federal jury agreed Mackey's rights to freedom of speech did not extend to attempts to deprive others of their right to vote.
"We are optimistic about our chances on appeal," Mackey's attorney, Andrew Frisch said in an email to Politico.
Mackey, who testified in his own defense, called the posts hyperbole, according to the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors confronted him about the "racist and misogynist posts," saying they showed he "intended to target black and women voters."
In September and November prior to the 2016 election, Mackey and other "influential Twitter users ... use[d] social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of candidate Hillary Clinton to 'vote' via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid."
One post featured an image of a black woman standing in front of an "African Americas for Hillary" sign. The post also contained text stating "Avoid the line. Vote from Home," "Text 'Hillary' to 59925," and "Vote for Hillary and be a part of history."
The inaccurate posts' text also included "#ImWithHer," a hashtag associated with the Clinton campaign. An additional tweet in Spanish featured an image of a person typing into her cellphone. That image used a font similar to that used by the Clinton campaign and included the campaign's logo.
At least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted "Hillary" or something similar to the number in Mackey's post, the Washington Post reported.
At the time, Mackey's Twitter profile, had about 58,000 followers. The MIT Media Lab ranked the account as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming presidential race between former President Donald Trump and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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