Last year, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was receiving threatening voicemails at her office.

According to prosecutors, a stalker called Greene’s office in March 2022 to say, “I’m gonna have to take your life into my own hands … I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you.”

On Thursday, the stalker was sentenced. He will head to federal prison for three months… and he may or may not have to pay for Greene’s security apparatus.

The stalker, 51-year-old Joseph Morelli, pleaded guilty in a federal court in upstate New York, near his home in Endicott.

After the voicemail, Morelli left a second message, prosecutors said. In a call to Greene’s office, he allegedly threatened to “pay someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack your skull,” prosecutors said.

Morelli was indicted a month after the calls on three counts of transmitting interstate threatening communications. He was sentenced to three months for each count, which will run concurrently.

Greene argued in court papers that Morelli should pay her $66,632 in restitution because the threats forced her to add more than 1,200 feet of fencing at her Georgia home and upgrade security cameras.

Judge Brenda Sannes deferred a decision on the restitution.

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick argued in court Thursday that although Morelli didn’t purchase a gun or car to drive to Georgia to act on his threats, he could have.

Southwick said Morelli has threatened others in the past and was “seeking confrontation with an authority figure.”

Morelli’s lawyer, Gabrielle DiBella of the federal public defender’s office, told the judge that he has expressed remorse for his actions.

DiBella, who has attributed Morelli’s crimes to bipolar disorder, said her client “is now doing everything in his power to work with treatment providers and minimize the struggles that he faces due to his mental health diagnosis.”

Greene, in the past, has been targeted in her own home.

In 2022, police in Rome, Georgia, received a false report about gunshot wounds sustained in Greene’s house, according to remarks from Greene herself. Naturally, the authorities sent a SWAT team to storm Greene’s home at night, as part of what turned out to be a hoax.

In other words, Greene was the victim of “swatting,” a term for making a prank call for a SWAT team.

Police came to her house again the very next day after yet another phony tip, she said at the time.

 

Flashback! Opponents incredulous as SWAT team shows at GOP leader’s house

 

The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.