Romanian man sentenced to 4 years for swatting spree targeting U.S. officials

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A Romanian man, Thomasz Szabo, was sentenced to four years in prison after prosecutors said he organized a wave of swatting calls and bomb threats aimed at dozens of U.S. government targets, including members of Congress, cabinet-level officials, federal judges and the heads of federal law-enforcement agencies.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson imposed the prison term in Washington, D.C., and also ordered three years of supervised release after it, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Prosecutors said Szabo pleaded guilty last June to conspiracy and threats charges, and the court gave him credit for the roughly 20 months he already had served in jail.

Prosecutors described the conduct as an increasingly common form of online harassment that uses emergency response systems against public officials. They said swatting involves making hoax threats designed to provoke emergency police responses at targets’ homes, and they said others joined Szabo in making the bogus threats.

In the sentencing filing, prosecutors wrote that the activities offered the defendant and his followers “much more entertainment value” because, they said, swatting and bomb threats “often resulted in an observable real-world impact.” Prosecutors also said that police departments and other first responders were “hijacked” repeatedly and deployed to fictitious emergencies, with fewer personnel and resources then available to respond to real emergencies.

Prosecutors said Szabo began building the operation in Romania, creating chat servers for him and other like-minded users to engage in internet trolling in 2018. By late 2020, prosecutors said his online activities expanded to include swatting, with the scheme later involving threats directed at U.S. officials.

The case also involved at least one other defendant. Prosecutors said Szabo was charged with Nemanja Radovanovic, of Serbia, whose case had not been resolved, and they said another associate, Alan Filion, was sentenced separately in Florida. Prosecutors said Filion pleaded guilty as an adult after committing the conduct as a juvenile and was sentenced in February 2025 to four years in prison for making about 375 swatting calls between August 2022 and January 2024.

According to prosecutors, in December 2023 Szabo told Radovanovic they should pick targets from both major political parties because “we are not on any side,” language prosecutors cited in their indictment. A day later, prosecutors said Radovanovic and Filion embarked on a swatting spree targeting at least 25 members of Congress or their relatives and dozens more state and federal government officials.

After Romanian authorities searched Szabo’s home in January 2024, Secret Service agents questioned him, according to the officials described in the case. He was extradited from Romania to the United States in November 2024.

In a statement associated with the sentencing, Jeanine Pirro said, “This administration will not tolerate attacks on the institutions and individuals who serve this country.”