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Joshua Hall, age 23, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 20 months in prison as well as three years of probation for both threatening a member of Congress and impersonating some of former President Trump's family members, according to Damien Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
On Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, Hall placed a series of telephone calls from the area of Yonkers to the California office of the Congress member, who was not identified by officials. During these calls, Hall spoke with three of the Congressman's staff members, Williams said.
In these calls, Hall stated that he "had a lot of AR-15s," and that he "wanted to shoot the Congressman." He also said that he wanted to come to the Congressman's office with his firearms, and that he would kill him if he saw him, according to Williams.
Additionally, he also stated that he wanted to "beat the shit out of" the Congressman and that he would find him and hurt him, Williams said.
In addition to these threats, Hall also raised funds for a fake political organization called "Gays for Trump" from September 2019 to December 2020, defrauding hundreds of victims including people living in New York, according to Williams.
The money raised by this scheme would then be used for Hall's personal living expenses, Williams said.
As part of the fraud, Hall would impersonate members of Trump's family on social media and use their names and photographs, including his brother Robert Trump, teen son Barron and sister Elizabeth Trump Grau.
He then used these accounts to gain more than 100,000 followers on social media as well as media coverage, which helped him convince people to donate funds to his fake organization, according to the US Justice Department.
Through this scheme, Hall raised more than $7,000 from his victims. He also even convinced then-President Trump that the account bearing his sister's name was real, The New York Times reported.
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