By Jacob Kaye<\/p>\n
A man who was arrested for allegedly threatening Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a series of voicemails pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor aggravated harassment charge on Wednesday, avoiding a 60-year prison sentence he once faced. <\/p>\n
Jeremy Fistel will have to complete an anti-bias and anger management program as part of the plea agreement he reached with the Queens district attorney\u2019s office on Wednesday, almost nine months after he was extradited from his Texas home to face accusations that he threatened the then-Democratic nominee for New York City mayor in a series of calls to Mamdani\u2019s former Assembly office in Queens. <\/p>\n
Fistel, who now lives in the five boroughs, was also barred by a Queens judge on Wednesday from having any contact with the mayor, either online or in person, for the next five years. <\/p>\n
Should he complete the programs and not be arrested, Fistel\u2019s conviction will be dismissed in the next three years.<\/p>\n
The agreement is a far cry from the consequences Fistel faced in September when he was arrested in Plano, Texas, taken to New York by the NYPD, and put before a judge in a courtroom packed with prosecutors and reporters. <\/p>\n
At the time, the Queens district attorney\u2019s office had accused Fistel of making terroristic threats against Mamdani in a series of menacing phone calls and anti-Muslim emails. <\/p>\n
In multiple calls, Fistel allegedly called the Muslim mayoral candidate a \u201cterrorist f\u2013k\u201d and said he hoped Mamdani and his family would be murdered. Fistel allegedly said Mamdani \u201cshould go back to f\u2013king Uganda\u201d where the mayor was born, adding that if he didn\u2019t leave, someone might shoot him \u201cin the f\u2013cking head and get rid of your whole family too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a terrorist piece of s\u2013t, and you\u2019re not welcome in New York or in America, neither is your f\u2013king family so they should get the f\u2013k out,\u201d Fistel allegedly said in a June 17, 2025, message. <\/p>\n
\u201cGo on and start your car and see what happens,\u201d he said in a different message, according to prosecutors. \u201cAnd keep an eye on your house and your family. Watch your back every f\u2013king second. Check your beeper, too, you terrorist f\u2013k. Beep beep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fistel\u2019s attorney, Todd Greenberg, long maintained that the charges against his client had been trumped-up during a particularly tense time in politics \u2013 Fistel was first arrested in Texas on Sept. 11, the day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking to college students in Utah. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have utmost respect for the Queens DA\u2019s office, but it was seriously overcharged,\u201d Greenberg said on Wednesday after Fistel\u2019s court appearance. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe never had any intent to carry it through, he’s not capable of carrying it through,\u201d the attorney added. \u201cWe agree the language was a little too much, he understands that fully, he’s very sorry for it, and he’s going to counseling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenberg asked Queens Criminal Court Judge Diego Freire on Wednesday if he\u2019d consider revoking the $30,000 bail Fistel\u2019s family posted for him after his arrest in September so that the defendant, who has since had trouble finding work, could use the money to live. <\/p>\n
Freire rejected the motion but said he\u2019d reconsider his decision in July, when Fistel is next scheduled to appear in court. <\/p>\n
According to prosecutors, Fistel first called Mamdani\u2019s district office on June 11, 2025. The call came as Mamdani began to surge in the polls in the Democratic primary race for mayor. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors said that Fistel said on the call that \u201cMuslims don\u2019t belong\u201d in the United States. <\/p>\n
Fistel allegedly said Mamdani was \u201cnot welcome in New York or America and neither is your f\u2013king family\u201d during the second call he allegedly made to Mamdani\u2019s office on June 18.<\/p>\n
Mamdani went on to win the Democratic primary race around a week after Fistel\u2019s second call.<\/p>\n
On July 8, Fistel allegedly sent an email to Mamdani\u2019s office saying that he hoped the lawmaker got \u201cterminal cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to see an IDF bullet go through your skull,\u201d Fistel allegedly wrote in the message. \u201cWould be even better if you had to watch your wife and kids murdered in front of you before they end your pathetic miserable life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message came from Fistel\u2019s email address, according to prosecutors. <\/p>\n
Fistel allegedly made a final call on July 23, saying that he hoped somebody would shoot Mamdani \u201cin the f\u2013king face.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you get raped and murdered as well,\u201d he reportedly said. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Greenberg said his client didn\u2019t \u201chave any deep prejudice to Muslim people\u201d and that he was \u201clearning to temper his political comments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mayor, nor anybody, has anything to worry about from Jeremy Fistel,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Eagle on Wednesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jacob Kaye A man who was arrested for allegedly threatening Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a series of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-255255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}