He Posted a Video of Himself "Teleporting" Into the Oval Office With a Knife. Now He's Facing 12 Years.

The video shows a man appearing to teleport directly into the Oval Office, walking up behind President Trump, and raising a knife toward his head as if about to strike. Federal prosecutors say that video is just one piece of a months-long pattern — and now the man who posted it is sitting in federal custody, held without bond.

Benjamin Azariah Southworth, a Westlake, California resident and former podcaster, was arrested and indicted on a three-count federal grand jury indictment: threatening to kill the president, cyberstalking, and interstate harassment through phone calls.

According to the indictment, Southworth used YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and a personal website from early 2026 through May to post content expressing hatred toward Trump and his supporters, at times allegedly encouraging political violence against them. The knife video is the most visually alarming piece of evidence cited, but prosecutors also point to a separate pattern: Southworth allegedly published the home address of Trump's personal attorney on TikTok, along with photographs of the attorney's family, and made repeated harassing calls to family members.

FBI Director Kash Patel identified the attorney at the center of the cyberstalking charge as Jay Sekulow, who represented Trump during his first-term impeachment proceedings.

Southworth has pleaded not guilty to all three counts. He is being held without bond while the case proceeds. If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum of 12 years in federal prison.

Threats against sitting presidents are prosecuted aggressively regardless of the target's politics or the defendant's — federal law treats them as a distinct, serious offense from ordinary online harassment, precisely because a credible threat against a president carries different stakes than a threat against a private citizen. The cyberstalking charge against Sekulow's family adds a second track to the case: prosecutors are treating the doxxing and harassment of the attorney's relatives as its own federal crime, independent of the presidential threat.