Feds charge two foreign men for swatting Marjorie Taylor Greene, scores of other officials

Federal authorities announced charges Wednesday against two foreigners they say were responsible for a flood of dangerous “swatting” incidents against senior Biden administration officials and members of Congress, including one that matches the Christmas Day attack on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Prosecutors attributed at least 20 swatting attacks against members of Congress to Thomasz Szabo, a Romanian citizen, and Nemanja Radovanovic, a Serbian. The attacks occurred over three weeks, starting on Christmas Eve and stretching into this year.

The attackers would place a call to police or a suicide hotline and report a bomb threat, a homicide or a hostage situation, often rushing officers to the scene and creating dangerous moments.

Among their targets were churches holding Christmas Day services, investigators said.

According to chat records investigators recovered from the two men, they pursued targets across the ideological spectrum. That included people they labeled as conservative influencers and “a libtard zoomer” who made TikTok videos.

“Need the libtards to cry too. We are not on any side,” Mr. Szabo said in one message recounted in court documents.

Ms. Greene wasn’t identified as a target, but the details of several swatting incidents match what has been publicly revealed.

Local police said a Christmas Day caller to a suicide hotline said he had shot his girlfriend and was going to kill himself. The person gave Ms. Greene’s home address, and the call was transferred to police.

News reports said the department dispatched officers, confirmed no real threat and canceled the call before officers arrived.

That tracks with the person identified as “Official Victim 1,” a member of the U.S. House, in the court case.

Prosecutors say Mr. Radovanovic called a “crisis intervention hotline” to report a homicide and imminent suicide at the home.

“I was just swatted. This is like the 8th time. On Christmas with my family here,” Ms. Greene, Georgia Republican, wrote on social media at the time.

Several days later, she said her two daughters were also swatted.

The court documents refer to swatting attempts on Dec. 28 against two “private” citizens related to Official Victim 1.

The Washington Times has reached out to Ms. Greene’s office for comment.

“Swatting is not a victimless prank. It endangers real people, wastes precious police resources and inflicts significant emotional trauma,” said Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Secret Service agents interviewed Mr. Szabo in Romania in January and said he admitted to leading an online group devoted to swatting and bomb threats.

He led them to Mr. Radovanovic, who was interviewed by Serbian authorities in February.

Investigators didn’t reveal a motive for the swatting but said Mr. Radovanovic said he was given targets by a third person who supplied scripts he used in the calls and the addresses he gave. Investigators said the third person is a juvenile who has admitted his involvement.

According to recovered chat records, Mr. Radovanovic told Mr. Szabo on Dec. 26 that he set off at least 25 swattings that day and created “massive havoc,” costing “taxpayers” more than $500,000 in wasted money over the previous two days.

No attorneys were listed in court records for Mr. Radovanovic, 26, or Mr. Szabo, 21.

“The perpetrators of these crimes left a trail of victims across the United States, abusing critical law enforcement resources to terrorize elected officials, public figures and private citizens,” said Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington field office.

The court documents say the two men began swatting as far back as 2020, but the case is focused on a rash of swatting from Dec. 24 through Jan. 9. Among the targets were at least 10 U.S. senators, eight members of the House and multiple relatives of House members.

Others included religious institutions, law enforcement officers, businesses and dozens of private citizens.

On Dec. 26, a caller reported that someone had stabbed his wife, taken another man hostage and had “multiple pipe bombs.” The address given was the home of a “senior” administration official under the Secret Service’s protection.

A call on Dec. 30 named the home of a Cabinet-level official, also under Secret Service protection.

Prosecutors didn’t identify that person, but it could be Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Several news outlets have reported that he and Jack Smith, the special counsel pursuing criminal cases against former President Donald Trump, were targets of swatting.

When investigators tracked down the phone numbers involved in the calls, they found at least 100 fake crime reports from Dec. 24 through Jan. 9.