The Austin Police Department arrested the online personality “Liver King” for making a “terroristic threat” against podcaster Joe Rogan.
Officers arrested “Liver King,” whose real name is Brian Johnson, the evening of June 24 in Austin, said APD Public Information Specialist Clara Ash in an email to The Dallas Express. Johnson reportedly made several “threatening statements” about Rogan before driving to Austin.
So what's the beef with The Liver King and Joe Rogan?
What did Joe do to get him crashing out so bad he'd go to Austin and get arrested for terroristic threats?
Is this a lesson not to eat raw liver and stream feeds while giving yourself a coffee enema? pic.twitter.com/BD4kdvWxvS— Sir Wit of Cheddar (@LudwigTheGuy1) June 25, 2025
Johnson is known online as the “Liver King,” running a YouTube channel with 1.21 million subscribers that promotes rejecting the modern world for “ancestral” living – consuming raw meat, such as liver, and performing feats of strength.
The day before Johnson’s arrest, he posted on Instagram, apparently threatening Rogan.
“We’re gonna force people to f*ckin’ pay. We’re not going to force Joe Rogan to pay, but we are going to force a response from him,” Johnson said in an Instagram video, the day before his arrest. “We’re going to make three people pay, primarily the fake Jews…”
Rogan has never hosted Johnson on The Joe Rogan Experience, but “has discussed his steroid use while mocking his ancestral diet,” according to the New York Post.
Austin police detectives were “notified” at 9:30 a.m. on June 24 that Johnson made threats on Instagram, according to Ash. They reviewed his posts and found he was “traveling to Austin while continuing to make threatening statements.”
“I’m picking a f*cking fight with this guy,” Johnson said in the post. “If being friendly doesn’t work, we’ll just f*cking fight you. And then after we fight you, we’ll still be friendly.”
Detectives contacted Rogan, who told them “he had never had any interaction” with Johnson but “considered the posts to be threatening,” according to Ash.
“Based on this information, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson on a charge of terroristic threat,” Ash said.
Austin police found Johnson at 5:59 p.m. that day, at the Four Seasons Hotel downtown, according to Ash. They “took him into custody without incident.”
Police brought Johnson to the Travis County Jail and charged him with a “terroristic threat” – a class B misdemeanor. According to court records, Johnson allegedly committed the offense on June 24. His bond was set at $20,000, and he was ordered to have “no contact” and to stay 200 yards away from Rogan and his family members. The jail no longer yields any results for Johnson’s name.
Since the arrest, Johnson has posted several other videos on Instagram, including some wearing a tactical vest. One video, according to Variety, showed him “on all fours sidling down the hallway at the Four Seasons Hotel.”
In another video, he referred to Rogan as “a bully who thought he was big enough to say things about a man.” Johnson said he was “here in Austin for one word, family.”
“This remains an active investigation,” Ash said. “No further information is available at this time.”