Former podcaster charged with threatening to kill Trump

A former California podcaster has been arrested on charges he repeatedly threatened to kill the president.

Benjamin Azariah Southworth, 40, of Los Angeles, engaged in repeated rants on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok in order “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,” prosecutors said in an indictment made public today.

He is expected to be arraigned Thursday in federal district court in Los Angeles, prosecutors added.

In one instance, Southworth posted a video “fictitiously depicting himself teleporting into the White House Oval Office, behind President Trump, and raising a knife up to President Trump’s head as if he was about to stab him,” the court filing said.

He also sold threatening merch on his website — stickers that said “Kill Trump,” according to prosecutors.

Southworth is the former host of the podcast “Yass, Jesus!” and a Christian reality show called “The Remix.”

He is additionally charged with cyberstalking and harassing one of the president’s personal attorneys and his family. The person was not named in the indictment, but FBI Director Kash Patel identified the victim as former Trump impeachment lawyer Jay Sekulow in a post on X.

“Deadly threats like this are as vile as they are criminal — those responsible will be met by this FBI and law enforcement,” Patel said in the post.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement about Southworth’s arrest that “We will hold perpetrators of violent threats accountable, and anyone who makes these threats online will not be allowed to hide behind their screens.”

NBC News Top Stories wp:paragraph