Man sentenced to prison for threat, calls to congressional offices

Source: Roll Call

Posted September 3, 2024 at 6:08pm


A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a man to 13 months in prison on charges connected to a threat to kill a congressional staff member and more than 12,000 phone calls to dozens of congressional offices, both in Washington and home districts across the country. The defendant, Ade Salim Lilly, pleaded guilty in May to two federal counts — interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and repeated telephone calls — and plea documents said Lilly at times used vulgar and harassing language.

In one incident, Lilly reportedly told a congressional staffer: “I will kill you, I am going to run you over, I will kill you with a bomb or grenade.” An indictment also accused Lilly of targeting a congressional office with phone calls more than 500 times over the course of about two days in February 2023.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia pointed to an elevated threat landscape facing members of Congress in recent years.

Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies are being forced to devote resources to protecting members of Congress and guarding against the threats, Kelly said. And he mentioned a 2022 attack against the husband of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the July assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2024/09/03/man-sentenced-to-prison-for-threat-calls-to-congressional-offices/