Man Threatened to Kill Staffer and Harassed Congressional Offices

A 35-year-old man from Queens pleaded guilty to making threats to kill a congressional staff member and placing over 12,000 harassing phone calls to members of Congress over a span of two years.

The man, Ade Salim Lily, admitted to threatening to harm someone involved in interstate commerce. Lily harassed 54 members of Congress by making thousands of phone calls between February 2022 and November 2023, leading to his arrest, as stated in court documents.

Lily made calls from Maryland and Puerto Rico to district offices in Washington, D.C., targeting both political parties, as reported by U.S. Capitol Police to NBC News. He is set to be sentenced in August.

Court documents reveal that Lily used aggressive and vulgar language towards staff members and interns who answered his calls. Despite warnings from Capitol Police about violating the law, Lily continued his harassment, causing staffers to stop answering calls.

During a call in October 2022, Lily threatened a congressional staffer by saying, “I will kill you; I am going to run you over, I will kill you with a bomb or grenade.”

Lily concealed his phone number using *67 and called one office over 500 times in two days. Between Feb. 6 and Feb. 27, 2023, he made 200 calls to another office with the intent to harass staff members, according to court documents.

He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.