Damian Williams, the US Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, introduced that JOSHUA HALL was sentenced right now by United Acknowledged District Choose Gregory H. Woods to twenty months in jail for making threats to kill a member of the US Congress and impersonating members of the family of the then-President of the US on social media to fraudulently increase funds for a fictitious political group. HALL beforehand pled responsible to at least one rely of constructing interstate communications with a menace to injure and one rely of wire fraud.
In line with the Data, Superseding Data, and statements made in courtroom proceedings and filings:
Menace Offense
On August 29, 2022, HALL positioned a sequence of phone calls from in or round Yonkers, New York, to the California workplace of a member of the US Congress (the “Congressman”). Throughout these phone calls, HALL conveyed threats to kill the Congressman to a minimum of three completely different members of the Congressman’s workers (“Employees Member-1,” “Employees Member-2,” and “Employees Member-3”).
On a phone name with Employees Member-1 and Employees Member-2, HALL acknowledged, in substance and partially, that he had loads of AR-15s; that he wished to shoot the Congressman; that he meant to come back to the Congressman’s workplace with firearms; and that if he noticed the Congressman, he would kill him. He additional acknowledged, in substance and partially, that he wished to “beat the shit out of” the Congressman and that he would discover the Congressman wherever he was and harm him. On a phone name with Employees Member-3, HALL acknowledged, in substance and partially, that he meant to come back to the Congressman’s workplace to kill the Congressman with firearms.
Fraud Offense
From September 2019 till December 2020, HALL defrauded lots of of victims by making false representations in the middle of elevating funds for a purported political affinity group (“the Fictitious Political Group”) for the ostensible objective of supporting the reelection of the person who was at the moment serving as President of the US (“the President”). Nonetheless, the Fictitious Political Group didn’t exist, and HALL used the funds for his personal private residing bills.
Central to the scheme was the impersonation by HALL of members of the President’s household, together with the President’s minor youngster, amongst others, by way of his creation and use of social media accounts bearing these members of the family’ names and pictures. HALL used these accounts to amass greater than 100,000 followers on social media and to acquire media protection, a public platform he then exploited to confer on himself and the Fictitious Political Group a false imprimatur of shut ties with the President’s household and to encourage victims to make financial contributions to the Fictitious Political Group.
In complete, the scheme devised and executed by HALL yielded 1000’s of {dollars} from lots of of victims positioned all through the US, together with within the Southern District of New York.
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Along with the jail time period, HALL, 23, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to a few years of supervised launch.
Mr. Williams praised the excellent investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Capitol Police and thanked the Metropolis of Yonkers Police Division for his or her help.
The case is being dealt with by the Workplace’s Public Corruption Unit and Basic Crimes Unit. Assistant US Attorneys Robert B. Sobelman and Alexandra S. Messiter are in control of the prosecution.