PHILADELPHIA. – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Clift Seferlis, 55, of Garrett Park, Maryland, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Judge Mark A. Kearney on 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs, arising from numerous threats sent to Jewish organizations and entities.
Seferlis was charged with those offenses by information last month, following his arrest in June on a criminal complaint and warrant in connection with such threats.
As presented in court filings and admitted to by the defendant, from at least March 2024 through at least June 2025, Seferlis used the United States mail to transmit at least 40 letters and at least two postcards to more than 25 Jewish organizations and entities located in multiple jurisdictions, including, but not limited to, synagogues, Jewish museums, Jewish community centers, Jewish schools, Jewish non-profit organizations, and a Jewish delicatessen. In many of these letters and postcards, Seferlis threatened to destroy physical buildings and/or to injure individuals.
Specifically, Seferlis caused the U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) to deliver threatening communications to these institutions on or about the following dates:
- Jewish Institution 1, a synagogue in Washington, D.C.
(March 6, 2024; January 24, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 2, an entity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(April 4, 2024; July 29, 2024; January 18, 2025; March 5, 2025; May 7, 2025; May 9, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 3, an entity in Fairfax, Virginia
(January 18, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 4, a synagogue in Gaithersburg, Maryland
(February 3, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 5, an entity in Fairfax, Virginia
(February 7, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 6, a synagogue in Hagerstown, Maryland
(March 2025)
- Jewish Institution 7, an entity in Rockville, Maryland
(May 12, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 8, an entity in Washington, D.C.
(May 29, 2025; June 3, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 9, an entity in Washington, D.C.
(June 3, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 10, a synagogue in Brookline, Massachusetts
(June 3, 2025)
Each communication listed above contained a threat to injure the occupants of the receiving institution.
As court filings further detail, the defendant, by threat of force, intentionally obstructed and attempted to obstruct congregants and other attendees in the enjoyment of their free exercise of religious beliefs, by threatening to harm the occupants of:
- Jewish Institution 1, a synagogue in Washington, D.C.
(March 6, 2024; January 24, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 11, a synagogue in Rockville, Maryland
(January 25, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 12, a synagogue in Falls Church, Virginia
(January 31, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 13, a synagogue in Gaithersburg, Maryland
(February 3, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 14, a synagogue in Washington, D.C.
(February 10, 2025)
- Jewish Institution 15, a synagogue in Hagerstown, Maryland
(March 2025)
- Jewish Institution 16, a synagogue in Brookline, Massachusetts
(June 3, 2025)
Further, the offenses against Jewish Institution 12, Jewish Institution 13, Jewish Institution 14, and Jewish Institution 15 included the threatened use of a dangerous weapon, fire, or explosives.
Seferlis waived venue as to those institutions and synagogues not in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and agreed to be charged in this District.
Seferlis is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 169 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $5,650,000 fine.
This case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia, with assistance from FBI Baltimore, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland’s Greenbelt office. The Anti-Defamation League, Secure Community Network, and Delaware Valley Intelligence Center also provided assistance with this case. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Dubnoff and Trial Attorney Taylor Payne of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.