Trump prosecution under KKK Act has precedent established earlier this year

Anyone looking to historical precedent for successful prosecutions of a Reconstruction era statute under which Donald Trump is reportedly being targeted shouldn’t have to look far.

That’s according to new reporting from Lawfare, which notes that federal prosecutors earlier this year secured a conviction under Section 241, a criminal statute that’s part of the Ku Klux Klan Act.

The report notes that Section 241 prohibits a conspiracy to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

Section 241 is among three statutes under which Trump is the target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of the former president’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, according to published reports. Conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding are the others.

Douglass Mackey, a social media influencer also known as “Ricky Vaughn,” was convicted of conspiracy against rights for a “scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote,” the DOJ said in a news release.

Lawfare’s Quinta Jurecic writes that, “The statute was somewhat of a dark horse as far as the Jan. 6 investigation goes—unlike § 371 or § 1512, it hasn’t featured prominently in discussions of potential criminal liability for those responsible for the insurrection—including in the Jan. 6 Committee Report and proceedings.

“Now that it’s on the table, the press has produced a flurry of guesses about how the Justice Department might plan to use § 241 and what it could mean.”

Mackey faces up to 10 years in prison.

“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,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a news release.

Read the full article here.