A former journalist was charged with a handful of the threats that have surged since January.
A disgraced former reporter was arrested by the FBI on Friday for making a series of bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers, the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish sites in an apparent cyberstalking campaign of revenge against an ex-lover.
Juan Thompson, 31, was arrested in St. Louis on cyberstalking charges. He was expected to appear in a Missouri court Friday.
The threats, eight in all, represent a small fraction of the more than 100 bomb threats that have targeted Jewish Community Centers, as well as Jewish schools, synagogues and other religious centers across the country this year.
Thompson previously worked at the The Intercept, an "aggressive and independent adversarial journalism" outlet funded by eBay owner Pierre Omidyar, but Thompson was fired in January 2016 after it was discovered he had made-up sources and quotes for his stories.
The FBI, in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, accused Thompson of lodging bomb threats against Jewish organizations in Dallas, Manhattan and San Diego, Jewish schools in Michigan and Manhattan, and the Anti-Defamation League headquarters in New York.
No explosives were found in any of the incidents, which took place in January and February.
Thompson allegedly named a former girlfriend – referred to by investigators as "Victim-1" – in some of the threats and used his own name in others, later claiming that those threats "were made by Victim-1 in an effort to falsely implicate" Thompson.
The pair's romantic relationship lasted from 2015 until July 2016, according to the FBI complaint. One month after the couple broke up, the victim sought a protection order against Thompson and renewed it in October and December.
From July 2016 through March 2017, however, Thompson allegedly launched a protracted campaign against his former partner, sending messages to the victim's employer and posting tweets that claimed the victim was anti-Semitic, had sexually transmitted diseases and had threatened to kill Thompson. He also allegedly sent an email to the victim, threatening to release nude photographs of the victim."Based on my conversations with Victim-1, I know that the above-described course of conduct has caused Victim-1 substantial emotional distress," FBI Special Agent Christopher Mills wrote in the complaint.
U.S. Attorney General Preet Bharara, in a statement, said, "Everyone deserves to be free from fear and discrimination based on religion, race, or ethnicity; that is fundamental to who we are as a nation."
He added, "Threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race – whatever the motivation – are unacceptable, un-American, and criminal."
The Intercept said it was "horrified to learn" of Thompson's arrest Friday morning.
"These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted," the publication said in a statement.
Police and the FBI have recorded a surge in threats against Jewish Community Centers and other Jewish sites since January. Law enforcement officials reportedly believe many of the threats are originating from overseas.
President Donald Trump, in his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, declared, "we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms."
