Juan Thompson, charged today with threatening various JCCs and the ADL, seen on a panel for BRIC TV in Brooklyn, Jun. 24, 2015 (You Tube\/BRIC TV).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Juan Thompson, 31, made some of the threats in the name of a former romantic partner he had been cyberstalking, according to a statement Friday by the U.S. Attorney of Southern New York. Thompson has been charged with cyberstalking, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we have charged Juan Thompson with allegedly stalking a former romantic interest by, among other things, making bomb threats in her name to Jewish Community Centers and to the Anti-Defamation League,\u201d U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. \u201cThreats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race \u2013 whatever the motivation \u2013 are unacceptable, un-American, and criminal. We are committed to pursuing and prosecuting those who foment fear and hate through such criminal threats.\u201d<\/p>\n
NBC News cited \u201cadditional sources\u201d saying Thompson is being considered a \u201ccopycat\u201d and investigators continue to look for others believed to be behind the wave of threats targeting\u00a0JCCs.<\/p>\n
Thompson made some of the threats in his victim\u2019s name and some in his own in an attempt to portray himself as being framed. In a series of \u00a0Twitter posts this week, he claimed his victim was in fact making the threats and framing him.<\/p>\n
He also tweeted sympathetic messages expressing support for the Jewish victims of the threats.<\/p>\n
But the FBI complaint against Thompson says he was behind at least eight of the threats made in January and February, mostly via email. The complaint says Thompson threatened institutions including the ADL, JCCs in San Diego and New York City, schools in New York and Michigan, and a Jewish\u00a0history museum in New York City. In the threats to the\u00a0schools, made on Feb. 1, Thompson referred to a \u201cJewish newtown,\u201d a reference to the 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Currently, the FBI complaint focuses on Thompson\u2019s alleged harassment of the women identified as \u201cVictim-1,\u201d saying he engaged \u201cin a course of conduct that placed [his victim] in reasonable fear of the death of and serious bodily injury to that person.\u201d In addition to the bomb threats, the complaint says Thompson\u2019s former partner\u2019s coworkers received anonymous emails claiming she had a sexually transmitted disease.<\/p>\n
Thompson attended Vassar College\u00a0and is a former journalist\u00a0who was fired from the online news site The Intercept in 2016 for fabricating sources and quotes in his articles. A statement<\/a> Friday from The Intercept said of Thompson\u2019s arrest, \u201cThese actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\nOn his Twitter account, Thompson made repeated complaints about a woman he had previously dated, at one point claiming she \u201csent a bomb threat in my name & wants me to be raped in jail.\u201d In another, dated Feb. 27, he tweeted that \u201cThe @SecretService visited me looked at my tweets, questioned my politics b\/c some awful white woman I date reported me. I won\u2019t be silenced.\u201d Thompson is African-American.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, however,\u00a0Thompson\u00a0made at least eight JCC and Jewish institution threats \u201cas part of his campaign of harassment\u201d against \u201cVictim-1.\u201d For instance, according to the complaint, on Feb. 21, 2017, Thompson is alleged to have sent an email to the ADL\u2019s midtown Manhattan office\u00a0blaming the woman for the\u00a0bomb threats and claiming she would be \u201cmaking more bomb threats tomorrow.\u201d The next day, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, \u201cthe ADL received a phone call claiming that explosive material had been placed in the ADL\u2019s midtown Manhattan office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities say the emails and phone calls were made by Thompson \u201cas part of a sustained campaign to harass and intimidate\u201d Victim-1.<\/p>\n
In total, more than 100 Jewish institutions, mostly JCCs, have received bomb threats since the beginning of the year. The last two weeks saw vandalism at Jewish cemeteries in\u00a0Philadelphia<\/a>,\u00a0 St. Louis<\/a>\u00a0and Rochester<\/a>, New York, as well as two\u00a0 more waves<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0 bomb threats<\/a>\u00a0called into JCCs, schools and institutions across the country, representing the fourth and fifth waves of such harassment\u00a0this year.\u00a0No explosive device was found after any of the calls.<\/p>\n\u201cThe NYPD\u00a0and the FBI\u00a0have done an outstanding job in this regard,\u201d Paul Goldenberg, director of the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for Jewish institutions, told JTA on Friday. \u201cWe at SCN\u00a0and the Jewish Federations of North America commend them and hold them in the highest regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The threats prompted clamor for President Donald Trump to condemn the anti-Semitism behind the targeting of Jewish institutions.<\/p>\n
After initially demurring to comment directly when asked about the spate of recent anti-Semitic incidents, Trump eventually called the threats to the community centers \u201chorrible\u201d and \u201cpainful,\u201d and Vice President Mike Pence paid a visit to a Jewish cemetery vandalized near St. Louis.<\/p>\n
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