Douglass Mackey Is in a Heap of Trouble

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One of Donald Trump’s most effective white nationalist trolls during the 2016 campaign was “Ricky Vaughn,” who was also one of the most reliable retweeters of Russian Twitter accounts. He did his best to stay anonymous, but Luke O’Brien finally tracked him down for HuffPost and he turns out to be…

Douglass Mackey.

….The 28-year-old has done a good job keeping information about himself off the internet….But here’s what we know so far….Mackey is from Waterbury, Vermont, a small town of around 5,000 people in the middle of the state. His father, Scott, a lobbyist who focuses on tax policy affecting wireless communications and the digital economy, was a former legislative aide to the late U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.). When contacted by email, Scott told HuffPost that “this is a very difficult time for our family and I don’t have any comment.”

….He went to Harwood Union High School, then nearby Middlebury College … moved to Brooklyn, New York, and took a job as an economist at John Dunham & Associates … terminated for reasons that Dunham could not reveal under New York labor laws … moved that year into a two-bedroom apartment on Lexington Avenue.

….Secrecy will no longer be effective for Ricky Vaughn.

No it won’t. Good.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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