Washington– A Romanian man was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for… Organizing a wave of overwhelming calls and bomb threats against dozens of U.S. government targets, including members of Congress, Cabinet-level officials, federal judges and the heads of federal law enforcement agencies, according to prosecutors.
Tomas Szabo, 27, was a prolific participant in a dangerous form of online harassment that has become an increasingly common occupational hazard for public employees. Across the American political spectrum.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of nearly five years for Szabo, who pleaded guilty last June to conspiracy and threats charges. He was also sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., to three years of supervised release following his four-year prison term, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office.
“This administration will not tolerate attacks on institutions and individuals who serve this country,” Pirro said in a statement.
In 2018, Szabo, from Romania, began creating chat servers for himself and like-minded users to engage in online trolling. By late 2020, he had expanded his online activities to include swatting, which involves making deceptive threats to provoke emergency police responses at targets’ homes. Others joined him in making false threats.
“Despite (or because of) the fact that they resulted in much greater harm to the victim and the community, these activities provided much greater entertainment value to the defendant and his followers, since bomb threats and strikes often resulted in a tangible real-world effect.” The plaintiffs wrote.
Szabo was charged with Nemanja Radovanovicfrom Serbia, whose case has not been resolved.
Another associate of Szabo’s was charged separately in Florida. An 18-year-old Alan Fillion was sentenced in February 2025 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to making approximately 375 phone calls between August 2022 and January 2024. Fillion was a juvenile at the time of his criminal conduct but pleaded guilty as an adult.
In December 2023, Szabo told Radovanovic that they should choose targets from both the Republican and Democratic parties because “we are not on either side,” the indictment said. A day later, Radovanovic and Filion embarked on a wave of strikes targeting at least 25 members of Congress or their relatives and dozens of other state and federal government officials, according to prosecutors.
“Repeatedly, the defendant hijacked police departments and other first responders and deployed them to fake emergencies,” prosecutors wrote. “As a result, there were fewer staff and resources available to respond to true emergencies.
On January 19, 2024, Szabo was questioned by Secret Service agents after Romanian authorities searched his home. He was extradited from Romania to the United States in November 2024, officials said.