Man arrested over threats to Jewish institutions nationwide

A former journalist fired for making up details in stories is behind at least eight of the scores of threats made against Jewish institutions nationwide, and a bomb threat to New York's Anti-Defamation League, in an effort to harass and vilify his former girlfriend, federal officials said today.

Juan Thompson, 31, was arrested in St. Louis and will appear in federal court in Missouri today on a charge of cyberstalking, authorities said. There was no information on an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

Federal officials have been investigating 122 bomb threats called in to nearly 100 Jewish Community Center schools, child care and similar facilities in three dozen states that began January 9.
 

Thompson started making his own threats January 28, and authorities are continuing to investigate the other threats, they said.

University City, Missouri, police Lt. Fredrick Lemons told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that detectives will question Thompson about the 154 headstones toppled last month at a Jewish cemetery in the St. Louis suburb. He declined to say whether Thompson was considered a suspect.

Thompson's first threat was to the Jewish History Museum in Manhattan, authorities said. He made up an email address to make it seem like the victim was sending threats in his name and sent messages to Jewish schools in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and Manhattan and to a JCC in Manhattan, authorities said.

Then Thompson, who's black, took to Twitter: "Know any good lawyers?" he wrote. "Need to stop this nasty/racist #whitegirl I dated who sent a bomb threat in my name." He later tweeted to the FBI: "I'm been (sic) tormented by an anti-Semite. She sent an antijewish bomb threat in my name. Help."

But police say it was all a hoax, created to make the woman look guilty.

Thompson, a former journalist, was fired from the online publication The Intercept last year after being accused of fabricating several quotes and creating fake email accounts to impersonate people, including the Intercept's editor-in-chief.

One of the stories involved Dylann Roof, the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter. Thompson had written that a cousin named Scott Roof claimed the white gunman was angry that a love interest chose a black man over him. A review showed there was no cousin by that name. The story was retracted.

The Intercept wrote today: "We were horrified to learn this morning that Juan Thompson, a former employee of The Intercept, has been arrested in connection with bomb threats against the ADL and multiple Jewish Community Centers in addition to cyberstalking. These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted."

Authorities say Thompson also made threats identifying the woman as the culprit.