SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A New York man will serve three months in jail for making threatening telephone calls to Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Joseph Morelli, 51, was sentenced Thursday in federal court docket in Syracuse after pleading responsible in February to threatening Greene in a number of calls to her Washington, D.C., workplace in 2022.

Prosecutors mentioned Morelli left a voicemail at Greene’s workplace on March 3, 2022 stating, “I’m gonna have to take your life into my own hands … I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you.”

On the identical day, Morelli left a second message threatening to “pay someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack your skull,” prosecutors mentioned.

Morelli, of Endicott, New York, was indicted a month after the calls on three counts of transmitting interstate threatening communications.

He was sentenced to a few months for every depend, which is able to run concurrently.

Greene argued in court docket papers that Morelli ought to pay her $66,632 in restitution as a result of the threats pressured her so as to add greater than 1,200 toes of fencing at her Georgia house and improve safety cameras.

Judge Brenda Sannes deferred a choice on the restitution.

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick argued in court docket Thursday that though Morelli didn’t buy a gun or automotive to drive to Georgia to behave on his threats, he may have.

Southwick mentioned Morelli has threatened others prior to now and was “seeking confrontation with an authority figure.”

Morelli’s lawyer, Gabrielle DiBella of the federal public defender’s workplace, instructed the choose that he has expressed regret for his actions.

DiBella, who has attributed Morelli’s crimes to bipolar dysfunction, mentioned her consumer “is now doing everything in his power to work with treatment providers and minimize the struggles that he faces due to his mental health diagnosis.”

A message in search of touch upon Morelli’s sentence was despatched to Greene’s workplace on Friday.

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