A Los Angeles-based “gay Christian podcaster,” LGBTQ advocate and former television host has been indicted by a grand jury on three felony counts for threatening to kill President Trump, cyberstalking, and making harassing interstate calls.
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Prosecutors allege that between January and May 2026, Benjamin Azariah Southworth, 40, used platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and a personal website to post videos calling for the president’s assassination and to dox the family of Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow by publishing their home address and phone numbers.
Specific evidence includes an April 7 Instagram video in which he stated, “Kill Donald Trump,” and a TikTok post publishing the attorney’s home address with the caption, “No peace for traitors.” He is also accused of leaving threatening voicemails with messages like, “justice comes to your door.”
Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, told Fox 11 Los Angeles that it was clear Southworth wasn’t joking when he made the threats.
According to the indictment, Southworth on March 31 posted on his now deleted “Holy Menace” Instagram account a video of himself saying, “Since the [United States] Supreme Court has ruled today that psychological, spiritual, emotional and physical torture known as gay conversion therapy is free speech, I want to practice my free speech as a survivor of conversion therapy for five years.”
The Supreme Court had ruled that same day that the state of Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youths violated the 1st Amendment’s free-speech clause.
“Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf—pedophile in the White House. Kill that traitor of the United States Constitution. That’s all,” Southworth allegedly said in the video.
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On April 25, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance stormed the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner in Washington, D.C., armed with guns and knives, and Southworth allegedly posted “IF AT FIRST YOU FAIL TRY AGAIN” on a livestream of Jordan Sekulow, the son of Trump’s personal lawyer.
On his Holy Menace website, Southworth also sold a sticker sheet of a mouse with bows on its head and the phrase, “kill trump.”
Southworth was arrested by the FBI at his Westlake home Thursday, following the federal grand jury indictment.
“Threats against the President of the United States are federal crimes,” Essayli said in a statement Thursday. “We 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.”
If convicted on all charges, Southworth faces a maximum total penalty of 12 years in federal prison (up to five years for threatening the president, five for cyberstalking, and two for telephonic harassment). He was scheduled for arraignment in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
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