A New Yorker who threatened Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over the phone last year was given a three-month prison term.
According to The Post-Standard of Syracuse, Endicott resident Joseph Morelli, 51, was sentenced on Thursday in federal court in Syracuse after pleading guilty in February to making seven threatening calls to Greene’s Washington, D.C., office on March 3–4 of 2022. The deadline for Morelli to surrender is October 2.
On March 3, 2022, Morelli left a voicemail to Greene’s office that said, “I’m gonna have to take your life into my own hands … I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you,” according to prosecutors. He left a second message that same day threatening to “pay someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack your skull.”
In a third message, Morelli said, “You’re gonna cause people to get hurt, so I’m gonna have to hurt you physically … I’m gonna make sure that, even if they lock me up, someone’s gonna get you ‘cause I’ll pay them, too.”
A month later, Morelli was charged with three counts of sending threatening messages across state lines.
Greene requested that the judge order Morelli to pay her $66,632 in compensation because the threats forced her to improve the security cameras and build more than 1,200 feet of fencing to her Georgia house. Judge Brenda Sannes postponed making a ruling regarding the restitution.
According to The Post-Standard of Syracuse, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick said in court on Thursday that even though Morelli didn’t buy a gun or a vehicle to travel to Georgia to carry out his threats, he might have.
In the past, Morelli has intimidated others, including retired judge Joseph J. Cassata, according to Southwick, who said that Morelli was “seeking confrontation with an authority figure.” Southwick said that Morelli should be punished for his crimes and that doing so would dissuade Morelli and others from making threats in the future.
Gabrielle DiBella of the federal public defender’s office, who is representing Morelli, informed the judge that her client has shown regret for his deeds. DiBella stated her client “is now doing everything in his power to work with treatment providers and minimise the struggles that he faces due to his mental health diagnosis.” Morelli has claimed that his bipolar disease is to blame for his threats.
According to DiBella, Morelli made the threats after seeing recordings of Greene during a time when his health was failing and he wasn’t in the best of spirits.
In two of the videos, Greene is seen arguing with a Parkland shooting survivor, and according to DiBella, this caused Morelli to think that Greene promoted hatred.
In one video, Greene promoted giving away guns and impeaching President Joe Biden.
Greene declared in a 2022 video that she would blow up a car with the word “socialism” on it before destroying the socialist programme of the Democrats. DiBella claimed that Morelli, who relies on Social Security benefits, believed the video put his benefits at risk.
Furthermore, Morelli would lose his Social Security benefits and flat if he was imprisoned, according to DiBella, and would be homeless upon his release.
The court stated that although she recognised that Morelli’s threats were a result of his difficulties with mental health, the family of Greene was nevertheless alarmed by the communications. Sannes claimed that it was taken into account that there was no proof that Morelli intended to hurt Greene or follow through on the threats.
