BALTIMORE (AP) — A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to making threats against the National Security Agency and its employees, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Ryan Matthew Conlon, 38, of Halethorpe, pleaded guilty to making interstate threatening communications concerning the NSA and its employees, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron announced.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher sentenced Conlon to six months of home detention as part of three years’ probation.
Authorities said the FBI identified Conlon early last year as the person behind threats called into an FBI tipline to blow up the NSA and shoot government employees. According to the plea, the FBI traced a threatening call from last Dec. 29 to Conlon, in which the caller discussed a plot to blow up NSA headquarters and shoot NSA workers.
Officials said another caller to the tipline two days later threatened the White House and that the call also was traced to Conlon.
When Conlon was arrested, he acknowledged he might have made the threatening communications which, in fact, he had, according to the plea documents. Conlon sent the communications with the intent to threaten NSA employees, or with the knowledge that the communications would be viewed as a threat, according to the plea.
The NSA headquarters office is based at Fort Meade.
Copyright 2022 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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