New York man admits phone threats to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
February 3, 2023
Federal prosecutors announced this week that a New York man had pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s House office in Washington.
Joseph F. Morelli, 51, of Endicott, admitted Wednesday to leaving a series of disturbing voicemail messages in March of last year.
“I’m gonna have to take your life into my own hands … I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you,” Morelli said in a menacing message he left on March 3, 2022, according to prosecutors.
A second voicemail message left by Morelli that same day said, in part, “I’m gonna have to show you, to your face, right up front, what violence truly is, and I don’t think you’re gonna like it … I can pay someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack your skull … You are going to get f–king physically hurt.”
“You’re gonna cause people to get hurt, so I’m gonna have to hurt you physically … I’m gonna make sure that, even if they lock me up, someone’s gonna get you ‘cause I’ll pay them too,” a third voicemail left by Morelli said.
The case was investigated by the FBI and US Capitol Police.
Morelli will be sentenced on June 1 and faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to three years.
Greene, a QAnon proponent, claims to have received many threats against her life.
Greene told The Post on Friday that Morelli is “at home” as he awaits his sentencing, and that it is a sign of the “two-tiered justice” system that several Republicans have recently raged against.
“A man pleads guilty for planning to kill me or paying someone to do it. Now he’s at home, able to do it while awaiting sentencing. But a guy who sat at Pelosi’s desk faces 20 years & people who walked into the Capitol on J6 are rotting in jail pretrial,” Greene said in a statement.
She went on to claim that there is a lack of media interest in threats made against her life compared to the coverage threats made against liberal lawmakers receive.
“The press keeps asking me about threats against Rep. [Ilhan] Omar, but none of them knew about this guilty plea for a threat against my life. Multiple people who want to kill me have been arrested, but the DC media doesn’t report it,” Greene told The Post.
“It’s two-tiered justice and two-tiered coverage,” she added.
In December, US Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told the Senate Rules Committee that more than 9,000 threats against members of Congress had been recorded in 2022.
In a tweet last year, Greene claimed that she has been the victim of several “swatting” episodes.
Greene tweeted that on Aug. 26, 2022, police were called to her Georgia home after someone made a prank call to officials saying there was an emergency there.
“I was swatted for the 6th time last night,” Greene wrote on Twitter, adding that “Swatting is a very serious crime. The caller wants to have their victim murdered by police. But it is also a giant abuse of police resources and time, which is another reason it is a serious crime. God bless my local police.”
No comments:
Post a Comment