WASHINGTON – A 35-year-old Queens man pleaded guilty Thursday to threatening to kill a congressman and making more than 12,000 harassing phone calls to members of Congress over a period of less than two years.
Ade Salim Lilly pleaded guilty to threatening to kidnap or injure a person in interstate commerce and to making repeated harassing telephone calls. The more than 12,000 calls, including more than 6,526 to congressional offices in Washington, D.C., were sent to the offices of 54 members of Congress between February 2022 and November 2023, when Lilly was arrested, court records show.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police told NBC News that the calls targeted both political parties, although he could not identify individual targets.
Lilly, who has been in custody since his arrest, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who set a sentencing hearing for August 28 at 2 p.m. ET.
Plea documents say Lilly’s calls were answered by staff members and interns of members of Congress and that he would “become angry and use vulgar and intimidating language” toward those who answered the phone.
“Based on his harassing communications, Defendant Lilly was repeatedly asked by congressional staffers not to make the calls,” his agreed-upon insult reads. “Additionally, United States Capitol Police officers repeatedly informed Defendant Lilly that his calls were unwanted and prohibited by law due to their harassing nature.”
In one instance on October 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.”
Some staffers would “stop answering their phones” because of Lilly’s insistent calls, court documents say, including when he targeted one office more than 500 times.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
