The former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, Brian Williams, pleaded guilty on Thursday to threatening to bomb City Hall.
The Department of Justice announced that Williams, 61, of Pasadena, has been charged with a felony count that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
Williams made the threat on Oct. 3, 2024, while he was in office. According to the DOJ’s release, Williams crafted the threat to appear as if it came from an unknown man who was “tired of the city support of Israel, and has decided to place a bomb in City Hall.”
It started while Williams was in an online meeting that day with “multiple people in connection with his official duties,” the release detailed.
During the meeting, Williams picked up an incoming call on his city-issued phone, excused himself and called the L.A. Police Department’s Chief of Staff.
In the conversation with the LAPD chief, Williams said he had just received a call from an unknown man who was threatening to bomb L.A. City Hall.
However, detectives uncovered that what had really happened was that while he was in his online meeting, Williams used the Google Voice application on his personal phone to place a call to his work phone, meaning Williams crafted the actual threat.
About 10 minutes after speaking with LAPD, Williams texted Mayor Karen Bass and “several high-ranking city officials,” again reporting the made-up bomb threat.
The DOJ said the text read as follows:
“Bomb threat: I received phone call on my city cell at 10:48 am this morning. The male caller stated that ‘he was tired of the city support of Israel, and he has decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda.’ I immediately contacted the chief of staff of LAPD, they are going to send a number of officers over to do a search of the building and to determine if anyone else received a threat.”
Soon after, the LAPD responded to investigate and search City Hall, but did not find any bombs, suspicious packages or devices.
Officials made it clear that “At no time did Williams intend to carry out the threat.”
Williams continued to lie to police about the call and appeared to take the lead on handling the situation with the Mayor’s office. The DOJ said Williams sent another text to Bass and others, saying, “At this time, there is no need for us to evacuate the building, I’m meeting with the threat management officers within the next 10 minutes. In light of the Jewish holidays, we are taking this thread, a little more seriously. I will keep you posted.”
A few months later, federal agents searched Williams’ home following allegations that he had made the threat, and the then-deputy mayor was immediately placed on administrative leave.
Now, Williams has pleaded guilty and is expected to make his first court appearance in downtown L.A. in the coming weeks.
“In an era of heated political rhetoric that has sometimes escalated into violence, we cannot allow public officials to make bomb threats,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is continuing to investigate this incident.
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