A former Los Angeles deputy mayor has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge for making a fake threat to bomb Los Angeles City Hall last year, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Brian K. Williams, 61, was charged with threats regarding fire and explosives, a felony, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said. A plea agreement was filed in the case on Thursday.
Williams is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in downtown Los Angeles in the coming weeks, prosecutors said. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
ABC News has reached out to Williams’ attorneys for comment.
The charge stems from an incident that occurred during a virtual meeting on Oct. 3, 2024, while Williams was serving as deputy mayor of public safety, according to the plea agreement.
While at Los Angeles City Hall, Williams called his city-issued cellphone from his personal cellphone using the Google Voice application, then left the virtual meeting to call the chief of staff of the Los Angeles Police Department to report a bomb threat, according to the plea agreement.
Williams “falsely stated that he had just received a call on his city-issued cell phone from an unknown male caller who had made a bomb threat against Los Angeles City Hall,” the plea agreement stated. “In fact, defendant had received no such call. Instead, defendant himself knowingly and willfully made that threat, which defendant admits was a threat to unlawfully damage or destroy a building by means of fire or an explosive.”
The plea agreement noted that “at no time” did Williams intend to carry out the threat.
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Brian K. Williams delivers a speech during the graduation ceremony for LAPD recruit class 11-23 at the Los Angeles Police Academy in Los Angeles, May 3, 2024.
Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Williams further admitted to sending a text message to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and officials in her office about 10 minutes later and falsely reported that he had received a bomb threat that morning, according to the plea agreement.
“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,'” Williams texted, according to the plea agreement.
LAPD officers responded to City Hall to investigate the threat but did not locate anything suspicious, according to the plea agreement.
The LAPD said in December that its initial investigation found that Williams was the “likely” source of the bomb threat and the investigation was referred to the FBI.
Prosecutors did not detail any motive for Williams’ actions.
Williams was “immediately” placed on administrative leave, a spokesperson for the mayor said at the time, adding, “The Mayor takes this matter very seriously.”
Bass named a new deputy mayor of public safety last month.
A man walks past City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, April 1, 2025.
Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
“In an era of heated political rhetoric that has sometimes escalated into violence, we cannot allow public officials to make bomb threats,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, whose office is prosecuting the case, said in a statement. “My office will continue its efforts to keep the public safe, including from those who violate their duty to uphold the law.”
Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said 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 said. “I’m relieved that Mr. Williams has taken responsibility for his inexplicable actions.”
