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A New York man has pleaded guilty and now faces years in prison for physically threatening violence against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), reports said on Friday.
Earlier this week, federal prosecutors announced that Joseph F. Morelli, 51, of Endicott, admitted that he left a series of threatening voicemail messages for Greene in March 2022. “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 one message that he left on March 3, 2022, according to the Justice Department.
A second voicemail message left by Morelli on the 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,” said a third voicemail that Morelli left.
The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police investigated the phone calls, the Justice Department noted in a press release that did not name Greene.
“At sentencing on June 1, 2023, Morelli faces up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors,” the statement noted further.
On Friday, Greene told the New York Post that Morelli is currently “at home” while awaiting his sentencing, not behind bars, which she claimed is a sign of a “two-tiered justice” system that Republicans have recently criticized.
“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 noted in a statement.
She also noted that there was a lack of media interest in threats that have been made against her life compared to those allegedly made against Democratic lawmakers.
“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.
Throughout last year, Greene continually dealt with potentially dangerous situations involving the police as she attempted to navigate through a divorce.
The Georgia Republican reported being “swatted” for a sixth time in late October — meaning, someone called the police to her home as a prank.
“I was swatted for the 6th time last night. Swatting is a very serious crime,” Taylor Greene noted on Twitter on Tuesday.
“The caller wants to have their victim murdered by police,” Greene wrote. “But it is also a giant abuse of police resources and time, which is another reason it is a serious crime.”
I was swatted for the 6th time last night.
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.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 25, 2022
Fox5 reported further:
Swatting is the act of making a hoax call to 911 to try and draw a response to law enforcement. Using technology that makes it appear that the emergency call is coming from a victim’s home, suspects try to lure law enforcement to the residence by telling them a crime has either happened or is in progress – causing a response from police or a SWAT team.
A spokesperson for Greene confirmed to the National Review that police responded to the Georgia Republican’s home but did not give any more information.
The ‘swatting’ incidents began in August, happening two nights in a row, as Greene noted online.
