A Texas man has been arrested for leaving multiple expletive-laden threats via voicemail and email to kill New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, authorities said Thursday.
Jeremy Fistel, 43, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Supreme Court on charges of threatening Mamdani in three expletive-laden calls in June and July and via an email sent through Mamdani’s campaign portal.
“The defendant threatened an elected official by leaving a series of increasingly alarming anti-Muslim messages,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “We take threats of violence against any office holder extremely seriously. There is no room for hate or bigotry in our political discourse.”
The first call was made on June 11, when Fistel allegedly said, “Hey Zohran. You should go back to f—ing Uganda before someone shoots you in the f—ing head and gets rid of your whole f—ing family too.”
“All right, you piece of s—,” the caller added. “Muslims don’t belong here. They’re not compatible with our western values, so stop spewing your anti-semitic rhetoric. Shut the f— up and get the f— out of America.”
Fistel was arrested in Plano, Texas, Sept. 11 and held there for a week, his defense lawyer said.
Jeremy Fistel (in hoodie) leaves Queens Criminal Supreme Court on Thursday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
The investigation by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force began after the department was alerted by Mamdani aides of a June 18 threat that the office deemed more serious, the Daily News previously reported.
In that voicemail, a recording of which was obtained by The News, the man called Mamdani, a U.S. citizen born in Uganda, a “terrorist piece of s—” and said a bomb would be planted in his vehicle.
“Go ahead and start your car, see what happens,” the person says in the message. “And keep an eye out on your house and your family.”
The caller also told Mamdani to “check your beeper, too, you terrorist f—, beep, beep,” a possible reference to the Israeli government’s deadly pager attacks targeting the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon in 2024.
Mamdani’s campaign noted at the time he does not own a car.
“The violent and specific language of what appears to be a repeat caller is alarming, and we are taking every precaution,” the campaign said in a statement at the time.
Jeremy Fistel is arraigned in Queens Criminal Supreme Court on Thursday. (Dean Moses / Pool)
On Thursday, in response Fistel’s arrest, Mamdani campaign spokeswoman Dora Pekec said, “We are grateful to District Attorney Katz’s office for treating this matter with the seriousness it deserves. Unfortunately, threats of this nature are all too common — and they reflect a broader climate of hate that has no place in our city.”
Fistel allegedly went on to send a July 8 email to Mamdani’s office, which said in part, “I hope you get terminal cancer and die a painful death very soon. I’d love to see an IDF (Israeli Defense Force) bullet go through your skull. Would be even better if you had to watch your wife and kids murdered in front you before they end your pathetic miserable life.”
And on July 23, Fistel allegedly left a voicemail saying Mamdani and his family deserved to die and that “all you and your Muslim f— loser friends and relatives and family and wife and kids deserve to die.”
Despite the fact Fistel blocked his caller ID, detectives were able to identify him via his cell phone number, prosecutors said. They also identified him because he sent the email using his own email address.
“If this is about phone calls, I just won’t make any more,” Fiskel said when interviewed by two FBI agents and an NYPD detective outside the Plano mansion where he was living with a girlfriend and her children on Aug. 21, according to prosecutors. “I don’t like people who support terrorism and burn the American flag around here. I don’t like that at all, but I have to mind my business. … I’m a taxpaying citizen. It’s rhetoric.”
Zohran Mamdani (Barry Williams/New York Daily News)
After investigators read to him transcripts of the voicemails and email, he agreed they sounded bad but said he hadn’t meant it, prosecutors said.
When investigators played him a recording of the June 11 call, Fistel said, “I have no interest in going to New York City. That place is like an alcoholic that has to hit rock bottom. … I couldn’t say if I recognize that call. I don’t believe I’ve committed any kind of crime.”
On the July 23 call, Fistel claimed, “I can’t say if I recognize that call. It sounds bad. It sounds terrible. It sounded unnecessarily over the top.” Later he denied he threatened “anyone.”
In court, his defense attorney Todd Greenberg argued Fistel merely said things within his First Amendment rights but took no steps to act on them.
“Making a terrorist threat has to be specific. It has to be imminent,” Greenberg said. “Wishing somebody did this to Mamdani or whoever the subject was, hoping it happens, is not a crime.”
Fistel was hit with a slew of charges including four counts of making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, four counts of making a terroristic threat and seven counts of aggravated harassment as a hate crime. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Justice Michelle Johnson set bond at $125,000. Fistel’s brother, who lives in the city, was expected to post the bail. Fistel is slated to return to court Nov. 19.
Mayor Adams launched an attack on Mamdani in response to the arrest.
“I guess that’s why the word irony is in the dictionary — because there’s something ironic about a person who called for protection for his life but don’t understand why we don’t want to defund and disband our police department to protect everyday New Yorkers.”
Mamdani’s campaign pays for his security, The News has previously reported.
Jeremy Fistel is arraigned in Queens Criminal Supreme Court on Thursday. (Dean Moses / Pool)
In 2012, Fistel pleaded guilty to a marijuana distribution charge in Brooklyn Federal Court and was sentenced in 2019 to time served, two years of probation and ordered to forfeit $50,000, court records show.
A co-defendant in the case, Jonathan Braun, of Long Island, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. President Trump commuted his sentence during Trump’s first term after Braun had served five years. In 2023, The New York Times reported the commutation may have undercut an investigation into a predatory lending ring linked to Braun.
Braun was charged earlier this year on Long Island with menacing a hospital nurse and another member of his synagogue. Braun will be sentenced Oct. 9 for a possible five years in prison.
The records indicate Fistel cooperated with federal prosecutors in the weed case to earn the highly favorable sentencing outcome — a fact that explains the long lag between the guilty plea and the sentencing.
In a letter to the judge in that case, Fistel wrote he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in a small town in Massachusetts and studied accounting at the University of Maryland.
“Between 2007 and 2009, I sold marijuana … and was given larger amounts to sell on consignment,” he wrote. “I’ve come to realize I turned to marijuana as a way to treat my undiagnosed anxiety disorder and to try and fit in with people who I thought wanted to be my friends. I have since found constructive methods of treating this anxiety.
“I have made significant effort to move past this phase of my youth and build a life as a contributing member of society and a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen.”
Jeremy Fistel leaves Queens Criminal Supreme Court on Thursday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Fistel wrote he began working at the insurance company John Hancock in 2010 around the time he was arrested in the marijuana case and was promoted four times at the company to rank of “product implementation analyst.”
He writes that he returned home to care for his mother after his father died. He volunteered for a youth work skills group and a nonprofit that provides meals for seniors, and was treasurer for the town’s men’s softball league.
His defense lawyer said he moved to Plano from Massachusetts to be with his girlfriend.
Originally Published: September 18, 2025 at 12:27 PM EDT