SEO Tweets About “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli Going To Jail Are Epic Schadenfreude
Remember Martin Shkreli, the guy who hiked the price of a life-saving AIDS drug by 5,000 percent? Well, he landed himself in jail on Sept. 13 and, honestly, it's really, really hard to feel bad for him. Tweets about Martin Shkreli going to jail demonstrated a whole range of giddy celebration — making the social media site, for one brief moment, a united space.
Shkreli has kinda had the whole jail thing coming for awhile. In August, he was convicted on three counts of fraud, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. And now, His $5 million bail was revoked on Sept. 13 after he posted a Facebook message offering up money in exchange for a strand of Hillary Clinton's hair. He's currently being held in a federal jail in Brooklyn, awaiting his sentencing on Jan. 16. Shkreli has said that he plans to appeal his conviction.
Given everything that has gone down during and after his trial, I would be highly surprised if that appeal worked out. Incidentally, if you have not yet read the transcript of potential jury member after potential jury member telling the court that they could not be unbiased about Shkreli — do it right now.
A snippet reported by Harper's as follows,
The court: Juror Number 144, tell us what you have heard. Juror no. 144: I heard through the news of how the defendant changed the price of a pill by up-selling it. I heard he bought an album from the Wu-Tang Clan for a million dollars. The court: The question is, have you heard anything that would affect your ability to decide this case with an open mind. Can you do that? Juror no. 144: I don't think I can because he kind of looks like a dick.
That's fair enough.
Shkreli stood trial and was convicted of charges, but was released on bail. And one would think, given everything that happened, that the former pharmaceutical executive would maybe try to lay low, and not stir up any trouble.
Yeahhhh — nope. Shkreli decided to take the time he had while awaiting sentencing to write a truly bizarre public Facebook message.
The since deleted post read,
The Clinton Foundation is willing to KILL to protect its secrets. So on HRC's book tour, try to grab a hair from her. I must confirm the sequences I have. Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.
Well, turns out that sort of offer just doesn't fly, legally. And (aside from being a totally insane request) it posed an actual threat to Clinton. U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto revoked Shkreli's bond, and, per The Washington Post, said,
The fact that he continues to remain unaware of the inappropriateness of his actions or words demonstrates to me that he may be creating ongoing risk to the community. This is a solicitation of assault. That is not protected by the First Amendment.
His lawyers tried to make the claim that their client was joking. They even blamed Donald Trump for Shkreli's Facebook post, citing, according to Slate, that the president used "political hyperbole” during his campaign and the ex-CEO was just following suit. In a letter to the court his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, wrote,
Indeed, in the current political climate, dissent has unfortunately often taken the form of political satire, hyperbole, parody, or sarcasm. While we do not condone Mr. Shkreli's comments, his constitutionally-protected political hyperbole does not rise to the level of making him a 'danger to the community' when he is not and has never been considered to be a danger.
That argument didn't work, which is completely unsurprising – especially given the fact that Shkreli posted yet another Facebook post, after his first one, saying,
Lol Hillary Clinton's presumptive agents are hard at work. It was just a prank, bro! But still, lock HER up. Spend your resources investigating her, not me!!
Lololololol SUCH a good prank, bro.
Meanwhile, Twitter was having a FIELD DAY over the whole thing.
Yup, this is pretty much that scene when the Wicked Witch dies in "The Wizard of Oz." And ding dong, we are all so here for it.
