NYC serial harasser admits making 12K calls to members of Congress, including threat to kill aide
A twisted Queens man has admitted making more than 12,000 harassing calls to members of Congress — including one threatening to kill an aide.
Ade Salim Lilly, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday to threatening to kidnap or injure someone on interstate commerce and making repeated harassing telephone calls to at least 54 congressional offices, court documents show.
The calls were usually answered by lawmakers’ staffers, and Lilly “would become angry and use vulgar and harassing language,” the plea deal shows — noting that he rang one Washington, DC, office more than 500 times in just two days.
His threats took an ominous turn in October 2021 when he threatened an aide answering his call to the DC office of a member of Congress, who was not identified.
“I will kill you, I am going to run you over, I will kill you with a bomb or grenade,” Lilly threatened, according to the document of what he pleaded guilty to.
The staffer “took this statement as a serious expression of an intent to inflict bodily harm,” the court docs stated.
The court document did not give more detail on Lilly, or elaborate on what grievance motivated his calls.
It was not clear if those targets were members of the same party.
However, he kept making the calls despite repeated warnings from police, according to the doc — which said he instead just “masked” his number.
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“Threatening another person’s safety or life is a crime, not protected speech,” said the US attorney for DC, Matthew Graves.
“This case should send a clear message that while people are secure in their rights to express themselves, they are not allowed to threaten people and those who do will be held accountable.”
Lilly faces up to five years in prison for threatening to kidnap or injure someone on interstate commerce, as well as up to two years on the repeated calls charge he admitted.
He will be sentenced on Aug. 28.
