New Yorker sentenced to over a year in prison for harassing members of Congress, threatening staff

A New York man was sentenced on Tuesday to over a year in prison, after he pleaded guilty to harassing multiple members of Congress and threatening to kill a Congressional staffer.

Ade Salim Lilly pleaded guilty in May to the federal charges of interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and repeated telephone calls. Lilly made more than 12,000 threatening or harassing phone calls to 54 lawmakers and their staffers from February 2022 to November 2023.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Lilly to 13 months in prison, and three years of supervised release, according to the Justice Department.

Capitol staffers have claimed Lilly would use vulgar language on the phones, and used *67 when dialing to hide his number so no one would know when he was calling. The biggest incident, which took place in October of 2022, occurred when Lilly told a staffer that he would kill them by running them over, or with a "bomb or grenade."

The phone calls were placed either in Maryland or Puerto Rico, and more than half of the calls were made to offices in Washington, D.C., while the rest were made to field offices. At least 500 calls were made to one office over a two-day period.

The names of the staffers and lawmakers the New Yorker harassed have not been disclosed, but police confirmed Lilly targeted members of both political parties.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.