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, he 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,” prosecutors said. “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. His lawyer, Todd Douglas Greenberg, described him as a respectable person and disputed the extent of the threats, arguing that Fistel used phrases 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 planned to submit to the court a video-recorded statement made by Fistel to authorities in front of his home in Plano. In that exchange, he told officers, “If this is about phone calls, I just won’t make them anymore.” He added, “I don’t like people who support terrorism. I don’t like that at all.”

Fistel told authorities that he did not threaten anyone and didn’t believe he had committed a crime, claiming he was “just a regular guy” and pleading not to be placed under arrest. “I am sorry. Stupidity is not fun,” he said. Prosecutors did not specify how the messages reached Mamdani’s campaign office beyond indicating they were sent in June.

The charges come amid a period of heightened tensions around political violence in the United States. Authorities have wrestled with security concerns as public officials cancel appearances or rely on a larger police presence. Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment immediately. 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 he loves.

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating from college. He was first elected to the New York Assembly in 2020. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Mamdani has been assigned a full police security detail. Adams, who is running against Mamdani in the mayoral race, noted the irony of providing security to someone who has criticized the city’s police department.