A Texas man was charged on Thursday with threatening Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, sending him messages filled with anti-Muslim insults branding him a terrorist and warning him not to start his car, suggesting that it would explode.
The man, Jeremy Fistel, 44, pleaded not guilty in a Queens criminal court to a 22-count indictment that includes charges of making a terroristic threat and aggravated harassment. Prosecutors said he had left a barrage of messages over six weeks starting in June, when Mr. Mamdani’s long-shot campaign was beginning to heat up and his public profile rose dramatically.
This week, Mr. Fistel was extradited from Plano, Texas, by New York City police officers, officials said. In court on Thursday morning, Judge Michelle Johnson set his bail at $30,000 and issued Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, an order of protection against him.
The charges arrive during an extraordinarily tense time for elected officials and public figures in the United States, where political violence has soared in recent years. Just over a week ago, Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, was shot dead during a public event in Utah, and in June, Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota, was assassinated along with her husband inside her home.
“We take threats of violence against any office holder extremely seriously — and there is no room for hate or bigotry in our political discourse,” Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney, said in a statement.
Mr. Mamdani’s campaign said in a statement that he was grateful to Ms. Katz “for treating this matter with the seriousness it deserves.”
“We cannot and will not be intimidated by racism, Islamophobia, and hate,” the statement said. “Zohran remains steadfast in his conviction that New York must be a city where every single person — regardless of faith, background, or identity — is safe, protected, and at home.”
Mr. Fistel, a University of Maryland graduate who studied accounting, was convicted in 2012 of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. One of his co-defendants was Jonathan Braun, a politically connected felon whose 10-year sentence for running a marijuana smuggling ring was commuted by President Trump in 2021.
In court Thursday, Mr. Fistel, dressed in a black, hooded sweatshirt and jeans, did not react as the assistant district attorney, Christina Mavrikis, read aloud the profane voice mail messages and emails he had left for Mr. Mamdani at his district office in Astoria.
But he nodded emphatically when his lawyer, Todd Greenberg, told the judge that Mr. Fistel did not mean any harm toward Mr. Mamdani and was not aware that his calls constituted a crime.
“I’ve never been in a fight with anybody,” he told the police in Texas, according to Ms. Mavrikis. “I’m not the guy, man. I’m just a regular guy. I know I didn’t sound like a nice guy on the phone.”
Mr. Mavrikis told the police that he had “no interest in going to New York City” but that if voters there “go socialist, it’s not going to be good.”
On Thursday, Mr. Fistel left the courthouse with his brother after the arraignment and declined to comment to reporters.
Prosecutors said that in June, Mr. Mamdani’s campaign reported that he received a string of vitriolic voice mail messages at his district office in Queens. On June 11, a man called and said Mr. Mamdani, who would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor if elected, should go back to Uganda before someone shot him in the head. The caller also said “Muslims don’t belong here.”
In another voice mail, left on June 18, the same man called Mr. Mamdani a “terrorist” who was “not welcome in New York or America.”
“Go on and start your car. See what happens,” the caller said, then used expletives as he told him to “watch your back every second till you get out of America.”
Prosecutors said that Mr. Fistel also sent hateful messages through a campaign website. One said, “I’d love to see an IDF bullet go through your skull,” an apparent reference to the Israel Defense Forces.
Mr. Fistel was charged with four counts of making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, four counts of making a terroristic threat, seven counts of aggravated harassment in the second degree as a hate crime and seven counts of aggravated harassment in the second degree.
He faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted of the most serious charges — the terroristic threats, according to prosecutors.
It would not be his first entanglement with the legal system.
The marijuana charges, for which Mr. Fistel was sentenced to two years of supervised release, were filed in the Eastern District Court of New York in 2011 and dragged on for seven years.
In a November 2018 letter to the judge presiding over that case, he said he met Mr. Braun soon after graduating from college. He “lacked direction” and began selling marijuana, setting off “a deeply regrettable period of my life.” T
He described himself as someone who had grown up in “relatively sheltered environment” in Sharon, Mass., a suburb about 25 miles south of Boston, where he attended Orthodox Jewish private school and regularly went to synagogue.
Mr. Fistel told the judge he was in a healthy relationship with a woman, taking care of his younger brother and mother and excelling at his job at John Hancock, an investment firm where he was an analyst.
On Thursday, Mr. Greenberg, his lawyer, said he had moved to Texas about a year and a half ago because of “a relationship.” He said Mr. Fistel had a job, but did not provide details.
Mr. Fistel was arrested by the Plano Police Department and jailed on Sept. 12, according to the Collins County Sheriff’s Department. He was held for five days until New York officers picked him up on Wednesday, according to the sheriff’s department.
Mr. Mamdani is the clear front-runner in what has been a particularly high-profile New York City mayoral race. Candidates in the city have always been expected to interact intimately with voters, and Mr. Mamdani has predicated his campaign on spontaneous encounters. Tighter security could change the nature of this race, and races to come.
Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election but is last in the polls, called it “ironic” that Mr. Mamdani, who had once called for defunding the police, needed their help to investigate threats against him.
“It goes to show these officers carry out their jobs no matter who the individual is,” Mr. Adams said. “We don’t believe anyone should be the victim of violence. But we also believe that we owe a debt of gratitude to our police personnel.”
On Sept. 11, Mr. Mamdani said in an interview with The New York Times that he had received new threats on his life since Mr. Kirk’s killing, which had occurred just a day earlier.
Mr. Mamdani said he was frightened for his staff and the people close to him, including the security officials assigned to guard him. But he also expressed resolve and said he would carry on in spite of the danger.
“It won’t change how I campaign,” Mr. Mamdani said. “It won’t change how I move through the city that I love.”
Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
Taylor Robinson is a Times reporter covering the New York City metro area.
The post Texas Man Is Charged With Making Threats Against Mamdani appeared first on New York Times.
