Overview
- Federal agents arrested 40-year-old Benjamin Azariah Southworth at his Westlake home on Thursday after a grand jury returned an indictment charging him with threats against the president, cyberstalking and harassing interstate calls.
- The indictment and charging statements cite social‑media videos and private texts from January through May that prosecutors say called for President Trump’s assassination, including an April 7 Instagram video that said “Kill Donald Trump.”
- Prosecutors allege Southworth published the home address and phone numbers of a lawyer who represented the president and directed followers to harass that attorney’s family, with voicemail threats saying “justice comes to your door.”
- Federal officials say the FBI and U.S. Secret Service are investigating and that Southworth faces statutory maximum penalties of about 12 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
- Coverage differs on whether the targeted lawyer is named in the indictment because the charging document does not identify the attorney while the FBI director publicly named Jay Sekulow, and the case raises questions about the line between criminal threats, doxxing and protected speech as it moves through federal court.