Federal agents arrested a 40-year-old Los Angeles podcaster who allegedly spent months posting videos calling for President Trump's assassination and cyberstalking one of Trump's personal attorneys, the latest in a pattern of escalating threats against the president.
Benjamin Azariah Southworth was taken into custody at his Westlake neighborhood home in Los Angeles on September 3 after a federal grand jury indicted him on three counts: threatening the president, cyberstalking, and making harassing telephone calls in interstate communications. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest the same day, and Southworth was expected to appear in a Los Angeles federal court that afternoon.
The indictment caps a months-long trail of alleged threats that ran from January through May 2026. Southworth, identified by federal authorities as an LGBT podcaster and former Christian reality television personality, allegedly used social media accounts to publicly express hatred toward Trump and the president's supporters, Just the News reported. He also allegedly left a series of abusive messages online and over voicemail targeting Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow and Sekulow's family.
The alleged conduct went far beyond vague hostility. Fox News reported that Southworth posted videos on Instagram calling for Trump's assassination, including a video from April 7, 2026, in which he stated, "Kill Donald Trump." Court documents quoted additional language from a posted video in which Southworth allegedly declared:
"I have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump... Kill Donald Trump."
The New York Post reported that another video depicted Southworth raising a knife to an image of Trump's head. In that same video, Southworth allegedly said, "Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf***** pedophile in the White House. Kill that traitor of the United States Constitution."
The language attributed to Southworth in court filings is not ambiguous. It is not satire. It is not protest rhetoric that wandered into gray territory. Federal prosecutors treated it as a direct, repeated call for the murder of a sitting president.
This case is not an isolated incident. The FBI has pursued similar arrests in recent months, including a man who posted a TikTok video calling for an armed assault on the White House to kill Trump.
The charges extend beyond threats against the president. Southworth also allegedly targeted Jay Sekulow, Trump's personal attorney, through a sustained cyberstalking campaign. He allegedly posted Sekulow's home address online, published phone numbers belonging to Sekulow's family members, and made at least 13 harassing phone calls to the family.
That kind of conduct, publishing a private citizen's home address and family contact information to a hostile audience, is designed to intimidate. It puts real people in real danger. The cyberstalking charge alone carries a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison.
Threats against the president carry the same five-year maximum. The harassing telephone calls charge carries up to two years. If convicted on all three counts, Southworth faces up to 12 years in federal prison.
Federal authorities have also pursued politically motivated federal criminal cases in other contexts, including a Tennessee man indicted for alleged arson at a historic Florida building.
Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the arrest as part of a broader enforcement posture against escalating threats aimed at the president. In a statement, Blanche said:
"As threats against President Trump's life escalate, the Department of Justice will respond with the full force of the law. We will hold perpetrators of violent threats accountable, and anyone who makes these threats online will not be allowed to hide behind their screens."
Patel echoed that message, calling the threats "as vile as they are criminal" and warning that "those responsible will be met by this FBI and law enforcement."
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who oversees the prosecuting office, was more direct. "There is zero tolerance for political violence, especially for threats directed at the President," Essayli said. "Threatening an elected official with violence is a serious offense, and you will be arrested and charged as Mr. Southworth found out this morning."
The coordinated statements from the attorney general, the FBI director, and the lead prosecutor signal that the Justice Department views these cases as a priority, not a sideshow. That posture matters at a time when threats and security incidents near Trump properties have drawn repeated law enforcement responses.
One detail in the timeline deserves attention. The alleged conduct ran from January through May 2026, five months of public videos, online posts, and voicemail messages before the grand jury acted in early September. The gap between the end of the alleged conduct and the indictment raises a straightforward question: why did it take months to bring charges for threats that were, by the government's own description, posted publicly on social media?
The indictment does not answer that question, and no public explanation has been offered for the timeline. Grand jury proceedings are secret by law, and federal investigations routinely take months. But when someone posts a video holding a knife to an image of the president's head and says "Kill Donald Trump," the public has a reasonable expectation that the response will be swift.
Southworth has not entered a public plea, and no statement from a defense attorney has surfaced. He was expected in court in Los Angeles on the day of his arrest. Whether additional individuals were investigated or charged in connection with the case remains unclear.
The broader pattern of federal law enforcement action against individuals accused of serious criminal conduct continues to grow, and the Justice Department's willingness to pursue these cases sends a signal about enforcement priorities under the current administration.
Social media platforms have spent years debating content moderation, algorithmic reach, and the boundaries of political speech. This case is a reminder that some speech was never protected. Explicit, repeated calls to murder the president are federal crimes, and the people who post them are not activists. They are defendants.