Romanian Man Receives Four-Year Sentence for Swatting Incidents Involving Multiple US Officials

WASHINGTON – A Romanian national received a four-year prison sentence on Wednesday for orchestrating a series of swatting incidents and bomb threats targeting numerous U.S. government figures, including members of Congress, senior officials, federal judges, and top law enforcement leaders, prosecutors announced.

Thomasz Szabo, 27, was heavily involved in this hazardous form of online harassment, which has increasingly plagued public officials across the U.S. political landscape.

Authorities had suggested a nearly five-year sentence for Szabo, who admitted to conspiracy and making threats last June. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, presiding in Washington, D.C., also imposed an additional three years of supervised release following his prison term, as reported by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office.

“Our administration stands firm against any assaults on the institutions and individuals dedicated to serving this nation,” Pirro stated emphatically.

Szabo’s activities began in 2018 from Romania, where he created chat servers to engage in online trolling with like-minded individuals. By the end of 2020, his operations had escalated to include swatting—making false threats to trigger emergency police responses to the homes of his targets. He was joined by others in executing these false threats.

“Despite (or because of) the fact that they resulted in far greater harm to the victim and society, these activities offered much more entertainment value to the defendant and his followers, since swatting and bomb threats often resulted in an observable real-world impact,” prosecutors wrote.

Szabo was charged with Nemanja Radovanovic, of Serbia, whose case hasn’t been resolved.

Another Szabo associate was charged separately in Florida. Alan Filion 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.

In December 2023, Szabo told Radovanovic that they should pick targets from both the Republican and Democratic parties because “we are not on any side,” their indictment says. A day later, 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, according to prosecutors.

“Over and over, police departments and other first responders were hijacked by the defendant and deployed to fictitious emergencies,” prosecutors wrote. “As a result, fewer personnel and resources were available to respond to real emergencies.

On Jan. 19, 2024, Secret Service agents questioned Szabo after Romanian authorities searched his home. He was extradited from Romania to the U.S. in November 2024, officials said.