Federal prosecutors have charged two European men with “swatting” dozens of members of Congress and other U.S. elected officials, including a former president and a president-elect, according to court records unsealed Wednesday.
According to the federal indictment, Tomas Szabo, 26, of Romania, and Nemanja Radovanovic, 21, of Serbia, are accused of making “swatting” calls to approximately 100 people in an attempt to provoke an aggressive response by police officers at the victims' homes.
The Secret Service affidavit does not name the former president or any other lawmakers.
The indictment does not specifically charge the defendants with threatening the former president, but identifies one of the alleged victims as a “former elected official in the Executive Branch” who was the subject of a Swat attack on Jan. 9, 2024.
US prosecutors have charged two European men with “swatting.” (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“While some of these calls were targeted at seemingly randomly selected civilians, the majority of the calls were targeted at government employees, family members of government employees, and other prominent individuals,” investigators wrote.
Online court records in Washington do not indicate whether Sabo and Radovanovic have been arrested or whether they are represented by attorneys. Court documents attached to the indictment said investigators believe they were in different foreign countries last week.
Secret Service agents interviewed Szabo in Romania in January, and he told them he had been involved in both swatting and bomb threats since late 2020, according to the affidavit.
Investigators interviewed Radovanovic in Serbia in February, and he recited portions of a “script” he used during the swatting calls, according to the affidavit. Radovanovic claimed he was acting at the direction of a minor who provided him with the victim's address.
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Szabo and Radovanovic are charged with conspiracy and more than 20 counts of racketeering. Prosecutors say the conspiracy took place over three years, from December 2020 to January 2024. A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., handed up the indictment last Thursday.
Two foreigners have been charged with “swatting” dozens of lawmakers and other public officials. (Associated Press)
According to the indictment, Szabo organized and controlled chat groups to orchestrate swatting attacks against 40 private citizens and 61 federal officials, including cabinet-level members of the executive branch of the federal government, the heads of federal law enforcement agencies, federal judges, current and former governors, and other state officials.
According to the indictment, in January 2021, three days before President Biden's inauguration, Szabo called a crisis intervention hotline and threatened to detonate an explosive device at the U.S. Capitol and kill the president-elect.
“Swatting is not a victimless prank; it puts real people at risk, wastes valuable police resources, and inflicts significant psychological trauma,” Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement.
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The FBI reported a surge in swatting calls in late 2023 and early 2024, with some of the targets related to the case against former President Trump. A fake emergency call reported a shooting at the home of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's election interference case in Washington. Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith was also the target of a fake emergency call on Christmas Day 2023.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
