Texas man charged with threatening NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani

NEW YORK (AP) — A Texas man has been charged with making death threats against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Jeremy Fistel, 44, was arrested in Texas and brought to New York for an arraignment on charges that he sent a series of threatening voicemails and written messages to Mamdani’s office in June, prosecutors said.

In one message, Fistel said, “Start your car. See what happens,” according to prosecutors. In others, he called Mamdani, who would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor if elected, a terrorist and told him to go back to the country where he was born — Uganda.

“Muslims don’t belong here,” Fistel said, according to prosecutors. “You deserve to be six feet underground,” another message said, according to authorities.

Fistel, who faces charges of making terroristic threats and aggravated harassment, pleaded not guilty. He left court Thursday afternoon after posting a $30,000 bail.

Prosecutors had argued for a higher bail amount, noting Fistel had an earlier conviction where he pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy to distribute at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and was sentenced to time served. In that previous case, Fistel was charged alongside a man whose sentence was later commuted by President Donald Trump in the final days of the Republican’s first term.

His lawyer, Todd Douglas Greenberg, said in court that his client was a respectable person and disputed the nature of the more recent charges, arguing that Fistel used words such as “wish” and “hope” rather than making “specific and imminent” threats.

“No one is sitting here arguing that what my client allegedly said was proper. It was unpleasant speech, but it was free speech,” Greenberg said.

Prosecutors said they’re prepared to submit to the court a statement recorded on video that Fistel made to authorities in front of his home in Plano.

“If this is about phone calls, I just won’t make them anymore,” he told officers, according to a transcript read aloud in court. “I don’t like people who support terrorism. I don’t like that at all.”

Fistel said he didn’t threaten anyone and didn’t believe he committed any crime as he claimed he was “just a regular guy” and pleaded with authorities not to place him under arrest.

“I am sorry. Stupidity is not fun,” he said, according to prosecutors. “Sometimes you get ashamed of yourself.”

The charges came during a period of heightened tensions around political violence in the U.S., following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah last week and the fatal shootings of a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband earlier this year.

Politicians in both parties and at many levels of public service have been forced to deal with acute security concerns, with some canceling public appearances, while others are relying on a large police presence to keep them safe.

In June, Mamdani, a Democrat who serves in the New York state Assembly, told reporters that he had received threats on his life and “on the people that I love.”

His campaign released a statement Thursday that said, “Unfortunately, threats of this nature are all too common — and they reflect a broader climate of hate that has no place in our city.”

“We cannot and will not be intimidated by racism, Islamophobia and hate,” the statement read.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters Thursday morning that Mamdani has been given a full police security detail.

But Adams, who is running against Mamdani in the mayoral election, also took the opportunity to chide Mamdani, saying it was “ironic” that someone who has criticized the city’s police department would now be benefiting from its protection.

“The person who made the threat should be apprehended. It just goes to show that these officers carry out their job, no matter who the person is,” Adams said.

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating college. He was first elected to the New York Assembly in 2020.