Federal agents have arrested Los Angeles-based leftist podcaster Benjamin Azariah Southworth at his Westlake home Thursday on a grand jury indictment charging him with threatening to kill President Donald Trump, cyberstalking, and making harassing interstate telephone calls.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced that the 40-year-old is accused of posting videos calling for the president’s assassination, then targeting the family of Trump’s personal attorney by publishing a home address and phone numbers and leaving voicemails that justice would “come to your door.”
According to charging papers obtained by the New York Post, prosecutors say Southworth used Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok from January through May to call for Trump’s death and later claimed some of it was “just rhetoric.”
An April 7 Instagram video cited in the case includes the lines, “I have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump. This government is illegitimate and out of control. It’s time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump.”
Other posts and texts quoted by prosecutors include statements that he wanted Trump and “his minions dead” and a March video repeating the call to kill the president.
One clip described in the filings depicts a staged scene of him appearing behind Trump in the Oval Office with a knife.
He also recorded a video for followers in case of arrest, acknowledging that calling for a president’s execution can put someone on a list.
Prosecutors say the words were knowing, willful, and meant to be taken seriously.
During the arrest, the Post reported, he shouted that Trump is a pedophile and that “the country has fallen.”
If convicted on all counts, Southworth faces up to 12 years in federal prison.
Southworth posted the attorney’s home address on TikTok with the line “No peace for traitors,” texted the lawyer’s son, published family phone numbers on Instagram with a mocking Valentine’s message, and placed at least 13 calls that included insults and a warning that “justice would arrive at the door.”
Southworth previously came out as gay while working in Christian television in 2008 and later co-hosted faith-and-sexuality programming, including a podcast titled Yass, Jesus!
His website has sold merchandise, including “Kill Donald Trump” stickers.
This is one of his TikTok videos.
He’ll be real popular in prison.