Brian K. Williams, 61, of Pasadena, Calif., a former Los Angeles deputy mayor of public safety, pleaded guilty on Thursday to making a bomb threat, a felony that carries up to 10 years in federal prison.
“In an era of heated political rhetoric that has sometimes escalated into violence, we cannot allow public officials to make bomb threats,” stated Bill Essayli, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
Williams admitted that while serving as deputy mayor on Oct. 3, 2024, he lied and claimed that he had received a call on his work phone from a man who threatened to bomb City Hall in Los Angeles, per the U.S. Justice Department.
“In fact, Williams received no such call and had made the bomb threat himself,” the department stated. “At no time did Williams intend to carry out the threat.”
The former city official also told the Los Angeles mayor and “several” senior officials in the mayor’s office that the man who made the threat said that “he was tired of city support of Israel, and had decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda.”
City police officers searched City Hall and didn’t find anything amiss. Williams acknowledged that he showed officers that he had received a blocked call on his phone, but he didn’t reveal that he had made the call to himself via Google Voice.
He also wrote to the mayor and city officials, 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 threat a little more seriously,” he added. “I will keep you posted.”
Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, stated that Williams “not only betrayed the residents of Los Angeles but responding officers, and the integrity of the office itself, by fabricating a bomb threat.”
“Government officials are held to a heightened standard as we rely on them to safeguard the city,” Davis added.