Jonathan Dale Benton-Atlanta man pleads guilty to making phone threats to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

2025-05-08 08:25:09source:Cyprusauction Trading Centercategory:Markets

ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to threatening U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in phone calls to the Georgia Republican’s Washington office.

Sean Patrick Cirillo,Jonathan Dale Benton 34, pleaded guilty to a charge of transmitting interstate threats before a U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta, according to court records. He will be sentenced later.

Prosecutors say Cirillo phoned Greene’s Washington office three times on Nov. 8 and made threatening statements while speaking with the lawmaker’s staff.

On one of the calls, according to prosecutors, Cirillo said: “I got a bead on her. Like a sniper rifle. A sniper rifle. And I’m gonna kill her next week.”

“Threatening to kill a public official is reprehensible,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan of Georgia’s northern district said in a statement. “Our office will not tolerate any form of violence, threats or intimidation against public officials.”

Cirillo isn’t the first person to face criminal charges for threatening Greene. Joseph Morelli of Endicott, New York, was sentenced to three months in prison last year after he pleaded guilty to leaving violent voicemails in calls to Greene’s office in 2022.

RELATED COVERAGE Georgia Republicans choose Amy Kremer, organizer of pro-Trump Jan. 6 rally, for seat on the RNCHouse Speaker Mike Johnson survived a motion to vacate. Here’s why his job is far from safeHouse rejects Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s effort to remove Speaker Mike Johnson from office

Greene asked the judge in the New York case to order Morelli to pay $65,000 in restitution to cover the cost of a security fence at her Georgia home. U.S. District Judge Brenda Kay Sannes denied the request, saying Greene’s lawyers didn’t establish that the security upgrades were linked directly to Morelli’s threats.

More:Markets

Recommend

Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds

Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effect

New York City built a migrant tent camp on a remote former airfield. Then winter arrived

NEW YORK (AP) — When New York City officials erected a sprawling tent complex on a remote former air

Jelly Roll gives powerful speech to Congress on fentanyl: What to know about the singer

Jelly Roll has been to jail. More than once.From an early age, the Grammy-nominated rapper, singer a