WASHINGTON — Federal authorities this week charged a 69-year-old California man with sending a threatening letter to the home of a conservative influencer who has deep ties to the Trump administration.
George Russell Isbell Jr. of San Diego was charged with mailing the letter to Benny Johnson, who appeared at a news conference with Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday to announce the charges. Johnson was close with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last month.
In the letter, Isbell allegedly called Johnson a "prostrating Trump boot licker" and said he needed to be "exterminated," while adding that he wouldn't take action against Johnson because he was "not giving up my freedom for worm s--- like you." Instead the letter wished for violence against Johnson.
“Here is hoping the American flag strangles the life out of you,” Isbell allegedly wrote. “My uncle drowned in the Rhine River to defeat fascists like you and I will not let his death be in vane.”
The FBI said that it found Isbell's fingerprints on the letter, along with the fingerprints of Johnson's wife, a member of Johnson's security detail and an employee at the UPS store where Johnson rented a mailbox.
“Maybe someone will blow your head off!!! We can hope!" Isbell allegedly wrote. "Planning any public engagements? Love to see your head explode and your blood stain the concrete red. What a sight!"
Authorities charged Isbell with one count of mailing threatening communications and sought his detention during a court hearing Friday, according to court records.
Johnson has deep relationships within the Trump administration. Justice Department news conferences don't typically involve the alleged victims of crimes, but Johnson appeared alongside Bondi and proclaimed that "violence has been mainstreamed by the Democrat Party."
Historically, incidents of right-wing violence in the U.S. has largely outnumbered those on the left. A study last year that was recently removed from the Justice Department website found that right-wing attacks continued to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.
But a more recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan research group, found that "2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumber those from the violent far right."
Bondi said that the country was "living through a horrific cycle of political violence."
Johnson and other MAGA influencers have recently accompanied Trump officials on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Johnson also went to an ICE facility with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and visited the White House to talk about antifa, a decentralized anti-fascist movement.
Johnson's prominence as a conservative influencer dates to before Trump's second term. Last year, a Justice Department case involving two employees of the Russian-backed network RT revealed that Russia had funneled millions of dollars to conservative influencers, including Johnson, to create videos.
