Former LA deputy mayor will plead guilty to making fake bomb threat at City Hall

A former aide to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass who served as the deputy mayor of public safety has agreed to plead guilty to threatening to bomb City Hall last year, the Justice Department said Thursday. 

Brian Williams, 61, of Pasadena, agreed to plead guilty to a single-count of “information with threats regarding fire and explosives”, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.   

“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. “My office will continue its efforts to keep the public safe, including from those who violate their duty to uphold the law.”

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The threat was carried out on Oct. 3, 2024 during a virtual meeting with Williams and others related to his duties, federal prosecutors said. During the call, Williams used the Google Voice application on his personal cellphone to place a call to his city-issued cellphone.

He then left the meeting and called the chief of staff of the Los Angeles Police Department, in which he falsely stated that he had just received a call on his city-issued cellphone from an unknown man who threatened to bomb Los Angeles City Hall.

Ten minutes after the call, Williams texted Bass and several high-ranking city officials in the mayor’s office and falsely reported, “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.” 

Investigators determined that Williams never received a call and had made the bomb threat himself. Federal prosecutors noted that Williams never intended to carry out the threat. 

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The LAPD responded to City Hall to search for any suspicious devices. None were found, prosecutors said. 

Williams described the threatening call he claimed to have received to police and showed them the record of an incoming call that appeared as a blocked number on his city-issued cellphone. 

That incoming call record was the call Williams had placed to himself from the Google Voice application on his personal cellphone, investigators determined.

Williams then texted Bass and other city officials. 

“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,” he allegedly wrote. “In light of the Jewish holidays, we are taking this thread a little more seriously. I will keep you posted.”

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“Mr. Williams, the former deputy mayor of Public Safety for Los Angeles, not only betrayed the residents of Los Angeles, but responding officers, and the integrity of the office itself, by fabricating a bomb threat,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. “Government officials are held to a heightened standard as we rely on them to safeguard the city. I’m relieved that Mr. Williams has taken responsibility for his inexplicable actions.”

Williams is expected to appear in court in the coming weeks, prosecutors said. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Bass’ office.