A 54-year-old Wasilla, Alaska man made his first court appearance yesterday in Anchorage after a federal grand jury indicted him for allegedly sending more than 20 threatening messages to a Michigan mayor last September, including one that read, per CBS Detroit, “No sleep until he is in the dirt along with all his scum family and friends and Muslims.” James Lawhorn is charged with seven counts of making threats in interstate commerce and one count of stalking, according to court documents.
Court documents identify neither the mayor nor the municipality by name, referring only to the victim as a Michigan public official, as reported by CBS Detroit. But reporting from The Blue Alaskan has tied the case to Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, noting that the alleged threats began just two days after far-right social media accounts amplified a viral video clip of Hammoud confronting a resident at a city council meeting in mid-September 2025. Federal prosecutors say Lawhorn sent his messages via Facebook pages, a city website and telephone between Sept. 18 and 23, 2025.
Messages Invoked Hanging and Firing Squads
Among the messages attributed to Lawhorn, according to court filings, was one stating, as per CBS Detroit, “No Muslim is an American citizen and never will be – you are all terrorist and shall be treated as do. Either by hanging or firing squad.” Another read, “This mayor needs to be killed now…. Hang him and all his family now. He is not safe on the streets anymore,” per the same court documents. The messages included both Islamophobic and homophobic rhetoric, and prosecutors described some as explicit assassination threats.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Steward following an investigation by the FBI's Anchorage Field Office, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska. Lawhorn appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew M. Scoble on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the article notes.
A Pattern of Threats Against the Same Mayor
This is not the first time Hammoud has been the reported target of a death threat. Hoodline previously reported that Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud publicly addressed another assassination threat in April 2026, after Detroit police arrested a local man in connection with a separate targeted death threat investigation. That earlier case also raised the possibility of prosecution under Michigan's anti-terrorism statute, Michigan Compiled Laws § 750.543m, which carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison for threatening an act of terrorism.
The alleged threats against Hammoud fit into a broader national pattern of hostility directed at local elected officials. A survey published in September 2024 by the National League of Cities found that 73 percent of surveyed mayors, city council members and city managers reported personally experiencing harassment, with nearly 60 percent saying political harassment had worsened since they took office. Separately, Princeton University's Bridging Divides Initiative reported that threats and harassment targeting local public officials rose 14 percent in 2024 compared to the prior year, tallying more than 600 hostile incidents nationwide.
September 2025 Saw a Spike in Threats Nationally
Data published by the Bridging Divides Initiative found that September 2025 — the same month Lawhorn allegedly began messaging the Michigan mayor — recorded more than 80 threat and harassment incidents against local public officials nationwide, a 280 percent surge over the previous month and the highest monthly total the organization tracked that year. Research from the Brennan Center for Justice, published in Ms. Magazine, has found that 43 percent of state legislators and 18 percent of local officeholders have been directly threatened with violence, a pattern researchers say is driving many public servants to consider leaving office.
Federal prosecutors nationally secure guilty outcomes in roughly 80 percent of cases brought under the interstate threats statute Lawhorn is charged with, 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), with typical sentences ranging between 24 and 36 months, according to an analysis published by Just Security. It remains unclear how Lawhorn's case will proceed or whether he has entered a plea.
