A New York man was sentenced Tuesday to 13 months in prison Threatening phone calls He threatened to kill members of Congress and a staffer.
Ade Salim Lilly, 35, was sentenced to three years of supervised release Department of Justice stated in a News release.
Lilly’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
green admitted the crime in May for making interstate communications with threats of kidnapping or injury and making repeated threatening phone calls.
Beginning in February 2022, he made more than 12,000 calls to the offices of congressional legislators from Maryland and Puerto Rico before being arrested in Puerto Rico in November 2023, according to court documents.
Federal prosecutors said that during the calls, Lilly would hit congressional staffers and “become angry and use vulgar and harassing language toward the person who answered the phone” when he was informed that the staffer would not be able to help him.
During a call on Oct. 21, 2022, Lilly told a congressional staffer, “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to run you over, I’m going to kill you with a bomb or a grenade,” lawyers said.
Prosecutors said that over two days in February 2023, Lilly called the office of a Washington, D.C., lawmaker more than 500 times.
In a sentencing memo seeking 18 months in prison, prosecutors cited increasing threats against elected officials.
“This is an election year, and more and more often, criticism of a political position or point of view crosses the First Amendment line and leads to real threats of violence,” they wrote. “The widespread increase in threats against elected officials poses a real risk that expressions of violence will become normalized.”
A Virginia man was indicted last month Makes a series of death threats Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris on a conservative social media site.
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, have also faced social media threats. In July, a Florida man was indicted Death threats to Trump and Vance.
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