A California man Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “coward hiding behind a keyboard” is now facing federal criminal charges for explicit threats to a prominent conservative commentator.
George Isbel Jr., 69, of San Diego, has been charged with being behind a death threat mailed to the home of Benny Johnson, a veteran conservative activist and commentator, the Justice Department announced Friday.
And in a news conference describing the charges, Bondi made it clear that her department is taking the case deadly serious.
.@AGPamBondi on threat to conservative commentator: “This was a coward hiding behind a keyboard who thought he could get away with this … I am proud to announce that we have arrested the author of this letter … and we are charging him federally.” pic.twitter.com/f78k7srcEL
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 10, 2025
“The author of this letter made it very clear that he hated Benny because of his views, and he wanted Benny dead,” Bondi said.
“This was a coward hiding behind a keyboard who thought he could get away with this.”
Isbel is now charged with mailing a threatening communication, a crime that can carry up to a five-year prison term.
In his own statement at the news conference, Johnson outlined the rash of recent incidents of political violence by what he called “left-wing extremists,” including the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist and “generational leader” Charlie Kirk in Orem, Utah, the attempted assassination of now-President Donald Trump in June 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the deadly Sept. 24, sniper attack on an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas.
And, as might be expected of an outspoken conservative and Trump supporter, a man whose account on the social media platform X boasts more than 4 million followers, he pointed the finger straight at the Democratic Party.
An individual has been arrested for threatening to kill my wife, my four children, and me. He sent a letter to my home saying he hated our views and wanted us dead.
He is being charged federally and faces prison time.
I want to thank President Trump, AG Pam Bondi, and the… pic.twitter.com/yRAw53QGOg
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 10, 2025
“If it’s happening every single week, is it that extreme?” he asked. “Or has the Democrat Party mainstreamed violence as a political tool?
“The individual who wrote me described why he wanted me dead. I was a white, cis(gender), Christian Trump supporter,” Johnson said. “They described in great detail how I would be killed in an open field just like Charlie. How much blood would come out of my head and neck when it was blown off.
“This individual described orphaning my four beautiful children and widowing my wife,” Johnson said.
And he demanded accountability for Democrats.
“Violence has been mainstreamed by the Democrat Party,” he said. “It’s not extremist. It is mainstream. And we need a moment of reckoning here. This has to stop.”
Johnson also made clear that he views the stakes in the fight to be too high for any compromise.
“You cannot make peace with evil as a Christian,” he said. “You cannot unite with people who want you dead.
“I want unity in this nation. I want to be able to agree on more than we disagree on. But for that first to happen, we must understand the battle we are fighting: Good versus evil. Darkness versus light. And good must conquer evil.
“Do not make peace with evil.”
Bondi sounded a note of determination that the federal government would use all its power to smother leftist violence. The apprehension of Isbell showed that, she said.
“We cannot allow this political violence to continue any longer,” she said. “This arrest will serve as a reminder to many: Do not do this. We will find you.”
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