A Romanian man pleaded guilty on Monday to charges that he was part of a “swatting” ring that went after many famous figures, including a former US president.
The 26-year-old Thomasz Szabo was part of a years-long plot to make fake 911 calls saying there were emergencies at the homes of top government officials and make bomb threats against government buildings and places of worship, according to the Justice Department. He did this by using the aliases “Plank,” “Jonah,” and “Cypher.”
Nemanja Radovanovic, a 21-year-old Serbian citizen who worked with Szabo, is said to have targeted about 100 people, including members of Congress, governors, cabinet-level executives, and state officials, the New York Post noted.
One of their victims allegedly included a “former elected official from the executive branch.” On January 9, 2024, Radovanovic lied about a murder happening at the home of the former president or vice president, who is not named in the indictment, and threatened to blow up the person’s house.
The indictment says that Szabo chose some of the victims and told Radovanovic to make the emergency calls that were meant to target both Republicans and Democrats.
“We are not on any side,” Szabo allegedly told Radovanovic.
The threatening calls began around December 2020, when Szabo called a crisis intervention number and said he would “commit a mass shooting at multiple unspecified synagogues in New York City.”
Around January 17, 2021, Szabo is said to have called another crisis intervention number and said he would kill Vice President-elect Joe Biden by setting off bombs at the US Capitol Building.
Radovanovic made the last “swatting” call for the pair on January 9, 2024, which was about a murder at the home of a state governor. This call is mentioned in the accusation.
In November of last year, Szabo was transferred from Romania. He pleaded guilty to one count of plot and one count of making bomb threats.
In October, he will be given his term in a federal court in Washington, DC.
“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,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “This case reflects our continued focus on protecting the American people and working with international partners to stop these threats at their source.”
FBI Director Kash Patel declared that swatting “will not be tolerated by the FBI.”
“Today, Szabo pleaded guilty to a years-long conspiracy that targeted victims with swatting and bomb threats, including to government buildings, houses of worship and homes of government officials,” Patel said in a statement. “Swatting endangers lives and will not be tolerated by the FBI.”
“We are fully committed to working with our partners to bring to justice those criminals hiding behind keyboards and threatening violence.”
Charges against Radovanovic are still pending.
Separately, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino made headlines recently when he announced that the bureau is “closing in” on suspects connected to the placement of two pipe bombs near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 — signaling that the long-running, four-year investigation may be nearing a breakthrough after lying dormant throughout the Biden administration.
“The second we got in, I put a team on it and I said, ‘I want answers on this,’” Bongino told “Fox & Friends.” “And I’m pretty confident that we’re closing in on some suspects.”
Law enforcement discovered two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committees just as thousands of protesters began converging on the U.S. Capitol, protesting the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Some of President Donald Trump’s supporters have questioned the timing of the pipe bomb incident and pointed to potential security lapses, speculating that the Biden administration has not been fully transparent about the details of the case.
Before taking office, Bongino was a prominent advocate of that perspective.