Benjamin Azariah Southworth, a 40-year-old Los Angeles podcaster, posted a video on April 7 addressing the Oval Office directly. In it, he said what most people on the fringes only think. "I have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump," Southworth stated. He wasn't kidding, and now the FBI has him in custody.
The federal indictment dropped on September 3.
Southworth didn't limit himself to a single outburst. From January to May, he maintained a steady drumbeat of assassination threats across social media. "This government is illegitimate and out of control. It's time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump," he posted. In another message: "Kill that mother——g pedophile in the White House." In yet another: "But if I could Kill him, I wouldn't waste the opportunity."
This wasn't ambiguous language. It wasn't satire. It wasn't political hyperbole that got taken out of context. The man recorded himself on video calling for the president's execution and then kept posting more of the same for months.
Southworth also went after President Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow, doxxing the attorney's family — publishing home addresses and phone numbers — and leaving voicemails stating "justice comes to your door." That earned him cyberstalking and harassing interstate calls charges on top of the federal indictment for threatening to assassinate the president.
FBI Director Kash Patel didn't sugarcoat it. "Deadly threats like this are as vile as they are criminal," Patel said. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli was equally direct: "Threats against the President of the United States are federal crimes. We will not tolerate threats of political violence in the United States."
Southworth, for whatever it's worth, previously hosted a Christian reality program called The Remix. Make of that what you will.
If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in federal prison.
The familiar objection is already forming: this was just online rhetoric, just a guy venting into the void. Except it wasn't the void. It was a public platform with an audience, sustained over five months, paired with real-world harassment of a named attorney's family. The law doesn't require you to buy a plane ticket before a threat becomes a crime. It requires intent, specificity, and a credible pattern. Southworth delivered all three on camera.