A US man has been sentenced to 13 months in prison for making more than 12,000 harassing and threatening calls to the offices of congressional lawmakers.
Ade Salim Lilly, 35, pleaded guilty in May, admitting to the court that he made the calls between February 2022 and November 2023.
He attempted to contact approximately 54 members of Congress, both at their district offices and at their offices in Washington, DC. He threatened to kill at least one staffer.
The federal judge overseeing Lilly’s case also sentenced him to three years of probation after his prison term.
In two days in February 2023, Lilly called a lawmaker more than 500 times.
Officials said most of his interactions were with congressional staff or interns.
In one call, he threatened an employee: “I will kill you, I will run you over, I will kill you with a bomb or a grenade.”
Lilly, a resident of Queens, New York, was arrested in November 2023 after moving to Puerto Rico.
Last year, Capitol Police Chief J Thomas Manger testified in court that the harassment campaign coincided with a 400% increase in threats against lawmakers in Congress over the past six years.
In May, Lilly pleaded guilty to interstate communication with intent to kidnap or injure and making multiple phone calls.
Prosecutors had asked for an 18-month sentence, writing in a sentencing memo that the current election cycle created a risk that such threats could become “normalized.”
On Tuesday, Chief Manger, whose force protects members of Congress and the Capitol, issued a statement saying: “We will enforce the law whenever someone crosses the line from free speech to harassment or intimidation.”
Lilly’s motives and ideology remain unclear, according to public records.
“My intention has always been to do what is best for our future generations,” he said in court during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
The judge noted a recent rise in violent attacks on politicians, citing the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
“We have a really serious problem,” he said before sentencing.
