now today, in 2021, a few years down the road, this guy, ricky vaughn, aka, douglas mackey, has been federally charged with election interference, but not for the 2020 election. he's been charged for his role in voter disinformation efforts in 2016. why are they just charging him now? in a criminal complaint unsealed today by federal prosecutors in the eastern district of new york, prosecutors allege that he spread misinformation to deprive individuals, specifically, minorities who supported hillary clinton, of their constitutional right to vote. here's what the prosecutors say -- "as the election approached, mackey spread disinformation about the manner by which citizens could and should cast their votes during the election, conduct that constituted criminal infringement of the right to vote." fbi affidavit that's the basis of this criminal complaint describes what he did -- "on or about november 1st, 2016, the day before he sent a tweet suggesting the importance of limiting black turnout, mackey tweeted a deceptive image. the picture featured an african-american woman standing in f

. >>> in 2018 huffington post set out to identify a guy by the name of ricky vaughn. he had a pretty big social media following and used it to send out anti-semitic and nazi and white nationalist memes, one of the prolific amplifiers of russian disinformation when russian intelligence operating twitter handles online to try to accomplish the goals in the 2016 election. he could be counted on to amplify those russian efforts. here's what they described him in 2018. quote, there was no mistaking his influence, tens of thousands of followers and the taeltd to blend messages on twitter made him a key disseminators of views and a figure in the white supremacist movement that attached itself to trump's coattails. huffington post unearthed that this persona is douglas mackey, from vermont, worked as an economist in new york city and lived on the upper east side. in 2016, in the late 20s at the time, at the top of the white nationalist influencer world online. many thousands of followers and pushing out a mix of anti-semitism, stragtd-up white nationalism and support of donal

. >> reporter: federal prosecutors say douglas mackey, ricky vaughn, was arrested in palm beach, florida8. >> douglas mackey seemed like average, normal, upper middle-class kid who grew up in a small town in vermont and ran track in high school. and then he went to middle bury college where he also ran track for a year. graduated in 2011, moved to new york and took a job in the financial industry. at some point working for economic consulting firm, fired from his job and then reinvented himself as one of the worst white nationalist trolls on twitter during the 2016 election. >> reporter: according to charging documents he's accused of conspiring to suppress votes and using social media to spread misinformation, telling african-americans they could vote for hillary clinton via text. referenced in hearing on russian meddling in the election. senator amy klobuchar displayed image from the tweet on the fake account. >> telling voters they could vote online. of course wasn't true. one of them, targeted of course, telling people they could just text hillary to that number to vote. i just want

. >> reporter: federal prosecutors say douglas mackey, who used the alias ricky vaughn was arrested wednesdayn west palm beach, florida. luke o'brien, a reporter from "the washington post," helped unmask mackey in 2014. >> douglas mackey seemed like a very average, normal, upper middle class kid who grew up in a small town in vermont and ran track in high school, and then he went to middlebury college where he also ran track for a year. he graduated from college in 2011, and then he moved to new york, and he took a job in the financial industry. at some point, he was working for an economic consulting firm. he was fired from his job, and then he reinvented himself as one of the worst white nationalist trolls on twitter during the 2016 election. >> reporter: according to charging documents, mackey is accused of conspiring to suppress votes and using social media to spread disinformation, telling african-american voters they could vote for hillary clinton by text. that same tweet specifically referenced during a 2017 senate judiciary subcommittee hearing on russian meddling in the 2016 presiden

. >> in 2018 huffington post set out to identify a guy that went online by the name of ricky vaughn.had a big social media following and sent out nazi and white nationalistic memes and one of the most prolific amplifiers of russian disinformation during the trump/clinton 2016 election. here is what the huffington post described him in 2018. no mistaking his influence. he had tens of thousands of followers and his talent for blending far right propaganda with conservative messages on twitter made him a central figure in the alt right supremacist movement attaching itself to trump's coattails and that the online persona was a real guy named douglas mackey from vermont, worked as an economist in new york city. 2016, a guy in his late 20s at the time and basically at the top of the white nationalist influencer world online. pushing out straight up white nationalism, russian propaganda about the united states and fervent support for donald trump. that was 2016. 2018. now today in 2021, a few years down the road, this guy has been federally charged with election interference but not for th