(ConservativeSense.com) – A man who threatened Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene has been sent to prison for three months. Joseph Morelli from Endicott, New York, left voicemails for the Georgia Representative, saying he would inflict real pain on her and would show her, “right up front, what violence truly is, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
He further threatened to pay someone $500 to crack her skull with a baseball bat and said he would do this even if he went to jail for threatening her.
The congresswoman is seeking more than $66,000 in restitution to reimburse the cash she’s been forced to spend to beef up her security. Greene also lashed out at the press for not covering the threats against her while expressing concern about the safety of Democrats such as Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
“The press keeps asking me about threats against Rep. Omar, but none of them knew about this guilty plea or a threat against my life,” she said. She added that a two-tier justice system is accompanied by a two-tier media that only cares about one side of the political aisle.
Threats against Members of Congress have surged in recent years, with Capitol Police saying the number of instances is up by 400% since 2016. Chief of Capitol Police Thomas Manger said there were 9,000 such incidents in 2022, calling it a “sobering number.
There has also been an uptick in violent offenses against federal lawmakers, some of which have made global headlines. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) was attacked with a knife on stage at an event last July, and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was assaulted in his California home. Paul Pelosi, 82, was hit with a hammer by a home intruder in October 2022 and suffered a fractured skull. David DePape was arrested at the scene, and his trial date is set for October 2023.
Police Chief Manger has repeatedly called for more resources to protect lawmakers in Washington, DC.
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