FBI Arrests Podcaster on Charges of Threatening Trump and Targeting Attorney Jay Sekulow

FBI agents arrested Benjamin Azariah Southworth, 40, at his apartment in Los Angeles’s Westlake neighborhood Thursday on a federal indictment charging him with threatening to kill President Donald Trump and with cyberstalking and harassing the president’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, and Sekulow’s family. A grand jury in the Central District of California returned the three-count indictment Wednesday. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Southworth was taken into custody Thursday morning and was expected to appear in federal court in downtown Los Angeles that afternoon. He is presumed innocent. Southworth previously hosted the podcast “Yass, Jesus!” and a Christian reality program called “The Remix.” Prosecutors say he used the website holymenace.com and accounts on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

The indictment charges one count of threats against the president, one count of cyberstalking, and one count of harassing telephone calls in interstate communications. Prosecutors allege that from January through May 2026 Southworth used those platforms “to publicly express his hatred toward President Trump and his supporters, and to publicly engage in and/or encourage the abuse, harassment and intimidation of, and violence against, President Trump.” Court papers describe a video that fictitiously depicted him teleporting into the Oval Office and raising a knife behind the president’s head. Officials say he sold stickers that read “Kill Trump.” In a March 31 Instagram video he said that after a Supreme Court ruling on conversion therapy he wanted to “practice my free speech as a survivor of conversion therapy for five years. Kill Donald Trump.” The filing also cites a January 2025 private text referring to the president: “But if I could Kill him, I wouldn’t waste the opportunity.” After Cole Tomas Allen stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner armed with guns and knives, Southworth allegedly posted “IF AT FIRST YOU FAIL TRY AGAIN” on a livestream involving Sekulow’s son. If convicted he faces statutory maximums of five years on the presidential-threat count, five years for cyberstalking, and two years for telephonic harassment.

On the Sekulow allegations, prosecutors say Southworth posted the lawyer’s home address in Brentwood, Tennessee, a photograph of Sekulow, a photograph of the residence, and a phone number, and wrote “No peace for traitors.” They say he urged followers to “visit” the home, left a series of abusive messages online and by voicemail for Sekulow’s son, and made harassing calls to the lawyer’s wife. Attorney General Todd 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.” FBI Director Kash Patel said the threats were “as vile as they are criminal — those responsible will be met by this FBI and law enforcement.” FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director Patrick Grandy said cyberstalking and threats of murder “are not considered mere political rhetoric under the law, but are serious criminal offenses that lead to prosecution.” The case is United States v. Southworth in the Central District of California.