WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., sentenced Thomasz Szabo to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for organizing a wave of swatting calls and bomb threats against dozens of U.S. government targets. Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of nearly five years.

The targets included members of Congress, cabinet-level officials, federal judges and the heads of federal law-enforcement agencies. Szabo pleaded guilty in June 2025 to conspiracy and threats charges, and received credit for roughly 20 months he had already served in jail.

"This administration will not tolerate attacks on the institutions and individuals who serve this country," U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said.

In 2018, from Romania, Szabo began creating chat servers for him and like-minded users to engage in internet trolling. By late 2020, he had expanded his online activities to include swatting, a form of online harassment that involves making hoax threats to provoke emergency police responses at targets' homes. Others joined him in making the bogus swatting and bomb threat calls. Prosecutors wrote that the swatting and bomb threats offered entertainment value to Szabo and his followers because they often resulted in observable real-world impact.

On January 19, 2024, Secret Service agents questioned Szabo after Romanian authorities searched his home. A day later, Nemanja Radovanovic and Alan Filion embarked on a swatting spree targeting at least 25 members of Congress or their relatives and dozens more state and federal government officials. Szabo was extradited from Romania to the U.S. in November 2024. "We are not on any side," Szabo said.

Radovanovic, of Serbia, was charged alongside Szabo, and his case has not been resolved. Filion, an associate of Szabo, was charged separately in Florida. He was sentenced at age 18 in February 2025 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to making approximately 375 swatting calls between August 2022 and January 2024. Filion was a juvenile at the time of his criminal conduct but pleaded guilty as an adult.