Man sentenced for 12K phone threats to Congress

Ade Salim Lilly, age 35, on Tuesday, was sentenced to 13 months behind bars for threatening to kill a congressional staff member almost two years ago, the Department of Justice said. Lilly in May pleaded guilty in the case. At that hearing, he also pleaded guilty to making more than 12,000 threatening calls to dozens of members of Congress over a nearly two-year period. In one two-day stretch in February 2023, Lilly called the same Congress member more than 500 times, the DOJ said.

How did he get away with this for two years? Lilly, a New York resident, masked his phone number to trick congressional office workers into picking up his calls, the DOJ said. Usually, interns or staff members ended up answering his calls, and he would use harassing and vulgar language while speaking to them. The staff members repeatedly asked him not to call again. In the October 2022 phone call in question, Lilly threatened a congressional staffer with either being run over by a vehicle, or killed by a bomb or grenade.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about Arizona police arresting a man for threatening harm to former President Donald Trump.