A Syrian man living in Albania at the time has been charged by a federal grand jury for a spate of ‘Zoom bombing’ incidents during Fresno City Council meetings in 2020 filled racist and other offensive comments.
Mohammad Amr Alhashemi has been charged with conspiracy to engage in anonymous telecommunications harassment, to engage in repeated harassing communication and to transmit threatening communications.
The big picture: According to the federal grand jury complaint, Alhashemi coordinated a Zoom raiding operation with multiple juveniles who lived across the nation to disrupt and harass public and religious meetings.
- Alhashemi ran the operation from May 2020 through February 2022.
- Alhashemi, a Syrian national with a home address in Tirana, Albania, is charged with using 19 aliases to disrupt the meetings.
- The complaint states Alhashemi is a student at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, England, who is studying software engineering.
- Alhashemi orchestrated the Zoom raids before entering the United Kingdom.
- Federal investigators tracked Alhashemi through IP addresses in Albania, Saudi Arabia and England.
The backstory: The first incident happened on June 9, 2020, during a Fresno City Council budget hearing, where Alhashemi attended the meeting using the alias Jacob Rothschild.
- He returned on June 11, 2020, using the alias Bryan Patterson and represented that he was a local resident of Fresno.
- On June 15, 2020, Alhashemi used the aliases Johnathan O’Bryan and Johnathan Mcallster to represent that he was a resident of Fresno.
- The Zoom raids were not exclusive to Fresno, as Alhashemi attended a Jewish virtual worship service in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he made antisemitic remarks.
- Alhashemi also attended Fresno City Council meetings on June 22, 2020, and June 25, 2020.
Zoom in: The June 11, 2020, meeting featured a presentation from the Fresno State chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on the topic “Building Community Trust and Accountability While Protecting Social Justice.”
- At the meeting, Alhashemi made the following threats: “we should defund the police, and I’ll tell you why… the main reasons is because, uh, there are still n______ in this city, we should kill all n______, I’m telling you right now, kill all the n______.”
- During a presentation regarding Fresno Yosemite International Airport on June 15, 2020, Alhashemi made the following remarks: “the airports are getting filled with n______, so many f______ n______, please kill them all,” “no more n______ in airports” and “we should defund the police and kill all n______ and faggots.”
- Alhashemi made similar threats during the June 25, 2020, meeting, saying “kill all n______” and “kill all n______ and faggots.”
- During the June 20, 2020, Jewish religious service over Zoom in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Alhashemi’s Zoom raid group said the following comments: “Holocaust never happened, Bitch,” “Shut up big-nosed, Jews,” “Jews don’t matter,” “Gas the Jews. Gas the Jews. Gas the Jews” and “You stupid nasty Jews. Kill all of you.”
- The Zoom raiders flashed images of swastikas on the screen during the service.
Go deeper: Shortly after the June 11, 2020, Fresno City Council meeting, the FBI interviewed an African American Fresno City Councilmember, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
- While the councilmember is not identified in the affidavit, Councilman Nelson Esparza was and currently is the lone African American on the council.
- Esparza told the FBI that “he initially felt angry, sick, offended, shocked, and embarrassed and hurt for the community.” After the meeting, Esparza “felt threatened by the statements and became concerned for the life and that of his family.”
- Federal investigators conducted search warrants across the nation at the homes of multiple juveniles who were involved in Alhashemi’s conspiracy, including a 13-year-old male in Beaverton, Oregon.
- Through interviews, the juveniles said Alhashemi said many hateful things toward minorities and other groups in their online messaging communities, and the group dozes Roman Catholic priests, Jewish leaders, city leaders, school leaders, yoga classes and cooking classes.
- According to the affidavit, the Juvenile from Oregon had expressed a desire to conduct a school shooting.
What they’re saying: Fresno City Councilman Miguel Arias, who was the council president in 2020, released the following statement on Friday:
- “On July 11, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation notified Councilmemember Miguel Arias of the indictment of Mohammad Amr Alhashemi. Councilmember Arias and others are listed as victims of the numerous alleged crimes committed by Mr. Alhashemi and others that engaged in criminal actions designed to disrupt, harass, and threaten our City. In 2020, in his role as Council President, Councilmember Arias ensured public access to local government continued during the pandemic by utilizing Zoom for virtual public participation.
- “The access was critical as the public was not allowed at that time to attend council meetings in person given health and safety emergency orders. It was especially important as the City was operating under emergency powers and taking unprecedented actions to save lives. Unfortunately, ensuring public access via Zoom also exposed local elected officials to a new level of attempted disruption, harassment, and death threats by those that took great steps to conceal their identities.
- “After the adoption of Zoom, it became clear that some had hijacked our public comment section to engage in a coordinated effort to disrupt and create instability in our City during an already stressed situation, as thousands of our residents died from COVID-19. At that time, we suspected that those engaging in threatening behavior were not Fresnans and did not reflect our city and residents values. I also warned those participating via Zoom, that the FBI was monitoring their threats and that they would be held accountable. Yet the threatening behavior continued for months and was eventually replicated by local extremists that ultimately went as far to threaten my family at our home and engage in a national insurrection at our nation’s Capital.
- “I want to thank the FBI, for being the local agency that took our reports and those of other community and faith leaders seriously and sought to hold those responsible accountable. In June 2020, I warned those threatening our safety that they would be held accountable. Thanks to the FBI, in June of 2024, that accountability has arrived.”
