Overview
- Clift Seferlis, 55, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Mark A. Kearney to 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstructing the free exercise of religion.
- Prosecutors said that from March 2024 through June 2025 he sent at least 40 letters and two postcards to more than 25 Jewish organizations in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
- Court filings describe threats to destroy buildings and injure people, with several mailings invoking the possible use of a weapon, fire, or explosives.
- Investigators linked all letters to the same typewriter and noted postcards were handwritten in block letters, with content referencing the Israel-Hamas war and historical and contemporary violence including Kristallnacht and a D.C. shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum.
- The FBI’s Philadelphia office led the case with assistance from FBI Baltimore, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Montgomery County Police, and community-security partners, and Seferlis faces a maximum of 169 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $5.65 million fine.