Romanian man pleads guilty to orchestrating online 'swatting' campaign against US lawmakers, including an ex-president

The U.S. Department of Justice said they had secured a plea agreement from a Romanian man who is accused of organizing "swatting" attacks against lawmakers, including a former U.S. president.

26-year-old Thomasz Szabo was extradited in November to the U.S. to face charges that he led an online community that targeted about 100 lawmakers with "swatting calls," hoax calls to law enforcement authorities.

'This defendant led a dangerous swatting criminal conspiracy, deliberately threatening dozens of government officials with violent hoaxes and targeting our nation’s security infrastructure from behind a screen overseas.'

Szabo would encourage members of the online community, beginning in late 2020, to make bomb threats and other hoax calls to police in order to provoke a dangerous law enforcement response to the target's home, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia.

Officials said Szabo and his co-conspirators would target "government buildings, houses of worship, and private residences, including the homes of senior government officials."

He would go by various online monikers, including “Plank,” “Jonah,” and “Cypher."

“This defendant led a dangerous swatting criminal conspiracy, deliberately threatening dozens of government officials with violent hoaxes and targeting our nation’s security infrastructure from behind a screen overseas,” said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “This case reflects our continued focus on protecting the American people and working with international partners to stop these threats at their source.”

Among the incidents attributed to Szabo by the DOJ were a mass shooting threat against New York City synagogues in Dec. 2020, as well as a threat to detonate explosives at the U.S. Capitol to kill the president-elect in Jan. 2021. The members of the online community went after members of Congress and their families, senior officials of the executive branch, members of the judiciary, state government officials, religious institutions, and some members of the press.

RELATED: Trump Cabinet nominees targeted by bomb threats and swatting incidents, according to transition team

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

The indictment said that Szabo targeted both the right and the left, and indicated that he was not on any partisan side.

Szabo is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., in October.

One of Szabo's targets responded to his arrest from last year on social media.

"Yesterday, I was notified that a recent federal indictment includes charges over my 'swatting' a year ago. Two foreign nationals were charged," said attorney Jonathan Turley.

"I am grateful to the Justice Department and these cooperating U.S. and foreign offices in finding the alleged culprits who swatted my home between Christmas and New Year’s in 2023," he added. "Such prosecutions will hopefully shatter the sense of anonymity and impunity of such culprits."

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