A New York man pleaded guilty on Thursday to threatening to kill a congressional staff member and making over 12,000 harassing phone calls to more than 50 members of Congress.
Ade Salim Lilly, 35, pleaded guilty to threatening to kidnap or injure someone in interstate commerce and making repeated harassing phone calls, according to court records.
Prosecutors allege that from February 2022 to November 2023, Lilly made over 12,000 phone calls to approximately 54 members of Congress around the country, both to their state and district offices. Prosecutors claim that Lilly made 6,526 of those calls to offices in the District of Columbia.
According to court documents, Lilly “would become angry and use vulgar and harassing language” toward staff members during phone calls. Staff repeatedly urged him not to call, and U.S. Capitol Police notified him that his phone calls were unwanted and illegal since they were harassing.
Lilly supposedly used “*67” to hide his phone number, and during a call to a Maryland congressional office in October 2022, he allegedly promised a staffer, “I will kill you; I am going to run you over; I will kill you with a bomb or grenade.”
Lilly’s sentence is planned for August 28.