A former podcaster from Los Angeles charged in connection with death threats against President Trump is expected to ask a federal judge Tuesday for release on bond while awaiting trial.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Azariah Southworth, 40, of the Westlake neighborhood, was charged in a three-count federal grand jury indictment this month with threats against the president, cyberstalking and making harassing telephone calls in interstate communications.<\/p>\n
He allegedly threatened to assassinate Trump and his personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.<\/p>\n
The indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court alleges Southworth used social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube and TikTok to \u201cpublicly engage in and\/or encourage the abuse, harassment and intimidation of, and violence against, President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second victim was not identified in the indictment but was described as \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s personal lawyer and that lawyer\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southworth is the former host of the podcast \u201cYass, Jesus!\u201d and a Christian reality show called \u201cThe Remix.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is expected to ask U.S. District Judge Wesley Hsu on Tuesday to consider setting conditions for release on bond while awaiting trial. He was previously ordered held in custody pending trial by a magistrate judge in downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
On April 7, Southworth allegedly posted a video on his Instagram account that contained a series of threats, including, \u201cI have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump\u201d and \u201cThis government is illegitimate and out of control. It\u2019s time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump,\u201d court papers show.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors contend that three months earlier, Southworth published a post on his TikTok account listing the home address of the personal attorney, along with a photograph of the attorney and another photograph of the lawyer\u2019s home. In the same post, Southworth allegedly stated, \u201cNo peace for traitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
From January 2026 to May 2026, Southworth also left a series of abusive messages online and over voicemail to the attorney\u2019s son, and made harassing telephone calls to the lawyer\u2019s wife, prosecutors allege.<\/p>\n
Southworth\u2019s federal public defense attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouthworth is charged with posting videos calling for President Trump\u2019s assassination, then targeted the family of the president\u2019s personal attorney by publishing their home address and phone numbers, and leaving voicemails threatening `Justice comes to your door,’\u201d First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cThreats against the president of the United States are federal crimes,\u201d the post said. \u201cWe will not tolerate threats of political violence in the United States. My office will prosecute anyone who crosses that line to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
If convicted, Southworth would face up to five years behind bars for threatening the president, a possible maximum of five years for cyberstalking and up to two years for telephonic harassment, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former podcaster from Los Angeles charged in connection with death threats against President Trump is expected to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[51138,10753,182948,48,52,51,47,50,49,170498,6247,30853,1519],"class_list":["post-464539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bond","tag-charged","tag-ex-podcaster","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-making","tag-request","tag-threats","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}