A 35-year-old Queens man pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a congressional staff member and making more than 12,000 harassing phone calls to members of Congress over two years.
Ade Salim Lily pleaded guilty to threatening to kidnap or injure someone on interstate commerce. Lily made more than 12,000 phone calls to 54 members of Congress between February 2022 and November 2023, when he was arrested, according to court documents.
Lily called both districts offices in offices in Washington, D.C., according to court records, making calls from Maryland and Puerto Rico.
Lily targeted both political parties, U.S. Capitol Police told NBC News. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
According to court documents, Lily used angry, vulgar, and harassing language to staff members and interns who answered the phone, and he was repeatedly warned by Capitol Police that he was violating the law. Staffers stopped answering their phones because of Lily's calls, according to court documents.
In a phone call made in October 2022, Lily told a congressional staffer, "I will kill you; I am going to run you over, I will kill you with a bomb or grenade."
Lily called one office more than 500 times over the course of two days, using *67 to conceal his phone number. He made 200 phone calls to one office between Feb. 6 and Feb. 27, 2023, with the intent to harass staff members, according to court documents.
He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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