A New York man was sentenced Thursday to three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for sending threatening voicemails to the Washington, D.C. office of Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, authorities said.
Joseph F. Morelli, age 51, of Endicott, entered a guilty plea in which he admitted to issuing the threats, a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York (NDNY) noted. “I’m gonna have to take your life into my own hands… I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you,” went one of Morelli’s threats in part. Another voicemail message 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.” A third said in part, “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 to.” (RELATED: ‘I Rip Your Head Off’: Montana Man Receives 2.5 Years For Threatening To Kill Sen. Jon Tester)
Morelli sent all three messages on March 3, 2022, per the press release.
Joseph Morelli, 51, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Syracuse after pleading guilty in February. https://t.co/8cZqLasWwA
— 13 Action News (@13abc) August 25, 2023
Rep. Greene was unnamed in the press release but identified in several news reports. Greene alleged that liberal lawmakers received far more media interest in threats made against them. “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. It’s two-tiered justice and two-tiered coverage,” she said, per the New York Post.
Greene is seeking $66,632 in restitution from Morelli to defray the cost of shoring up security at her home consequent to Morelli’s threats. Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda K. Sannes, who presided over the case, deferred the decision on the restitution to a later date, the press release noted.