Romanian pleads guilty to 'swatting' US lawmakers and top officials

A Romanian man has pleaded guilty to participating in a years-long series of dangerous hoax phone calls and bomb threats targeting American legislators, law enforcement leaders, and government officials, the US Justice Department said Monday.

In a statement, the department said that Thomasz Szabo, 26, who was extradited to the United States last year, admitted targeting more than 75 officials, four religious institutions, and multiple journalists in his campaign of intimidation. Officials said Szabo targeted private residences, including the homes and families of senior government officials.

Authorities say Szabo routinely phoned in bomb threats and reports of ongoing violence or hostage situations at his targets' homes or places of work, a technique called “swatting” because it is meant to elicit the emergency deployment of heavily armed police officers.

Emails seeking comment from Szabo's lawyers were not immediately returned.

Justice officials described Szabo as the leader of a group that made a series of false reports to US law enforcement, including a December 2020 threat to commit a mass-shooting at New York City synagogues and a January 2021 threat to detonate explosives at the US Capitol and kill then-President-elect Joe Biden.

The department said that, in a two-month period alone, members of Szabo’s gang targeted at least 25 members of Congress or their family members, six then-current or former senior U.S. federal officials, "including multiple cabinet-level officials," at least 13 then-current or former senior federal law enforcement officials, including the heads of multiple federal law enforcement agencies. Others targeted included members of the federal judiciary, state government officials, and members of the media.

It was during that time that one of Szabo's subordinates boasted of "creating massive havoc" in the United States, the department said.