A Maryland man faces 169 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to making threats against several D.C.-area Jewish institutions — including two in Fairfax.
Clift Seferlis, 55, from Garrett Park pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday (Nov. 17) to a total of 25 counts of two different crimes: 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs.
Between March 2024 and June 2025, Seferlis mailed at least 40 letters and at least two postcards through the U.S. Postal Service threatening to “injure the occupants” of eight different Jewish institutions in the D.C.-area, as well as one in Philadelphia and one outside of Boston, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said.
Though specific locations are not identified, federal prosecutors claim the targets of the threats included “synagogues, Jewish museums, Jewish community centers, Jewish schools, Jewish non-profit organizations and a Jewish delicatessen.”
Threats directed at seven different synagogues, including six in the D.C. area, “intentionally obstructed … [the] free exercise of religious beliefs” by suggesting occupants may be harmed, federal prosecutors say.
“Many of the letters refer to Gaza, Israel or events in which Jewish people were killed or otherwise attacked … [t]he letters then suggest that the recipients might become victims of similar acts of violence,” an FBI investigator wrote in an affidavit.
The threats against Fairfax institutions were mailed on Jan. 18 and Feb. 7, the U.S. Justice Department said. A synagogue in Falls Church also received a threatening letter on Jan. 31.
Though Seferlis did not sign the letters, they were “sufficiently similar to one another to support an inference that they have all been written by the same person or persons,” according to court documents.
He ultimately admitted to writing and sending them during an interview with law enforcement, the FBI investigator wrote.
“Seferlis further admitted that he knew his mailings were likely to intimidate and threaten the recipients of those mailings and admitted that was his purpose in transmitting the mailings,” court documents said.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for March 16, 2026. Seferlis could face up to 169 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $5.65 million fine.
Photo via Wesley Tingey/Unsplash
