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Ade Salim Lilly, 35, was sentenced to 13 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release for making threats and "conducting a campaign of pervasive harassing communications against members of Congress," according to the US Attorney's Office.
Court documents state that beginning in early February 2022, and continuing through his arrest in November last year, Lilly made more than 12,000 telephone calls to approximately 54 offices of members of Congress across the country and in DC.
Prosecutors say that of the calls to congressional offices, more than 6,526 were made by Lilly to offices within the District, and they were placed while he was in Maryland or Puerto Rico.
"Most of these phone calls were answered by congressional staff members or interns," they continued. "In some of these telephone calls, Lilly would become angry and use vulgar and harassing language towards the individual who answered the phone."
Lilly was repeatedly instructed to stop calling, and US Capitol Police investigators intervened on multiple occasions to advise that his actions were prohibited, though he continued to target Congressional offices.
According to investigators, to avoid detection Lilly managed to mask his phone number in an effort to get staff members to answer his phone calls.
During his reign of rampage, federal officials say that in October 2022, Lilly called into an office in DC, threatening a staff member.
“I will kill you, I am going to run you over, I will kill you with a bomb or grenade,” Lilly told the employee.
In one particular instance, prosecutors made note that in a two-day span in February 2023, Lilly called one particular congressional representative more than 500 times.
Lilly pleaded guilty in May to interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and repeated telephone calls.
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