The FBI has made an arrest in connection with the wave of threatening phone calls to Jewish community centers across the country, according to Hot Air. The suspect is Juan Thompson, described as a disgraced left-wing journalist.
Thompson had worked for the Intercept before he was caught inventing quotes and sources for stories, including an imaginary cousin of Dylann Roof, the notorious Charlotte church mass murderer. He also briefly worked for Raw Story before his past caught up with him and he was let go.
Thompson apparently made at least eight of the threatening calls in an effort to exact revenge against a former girlfriend.
He had been making scurrilous accusations against the unidentified woman before making email threats in his own name and then claiming that the former girlfriend had hacked his account on Twitter. This subterfuge which Thompson must have thought was clever was not sharp enough to fool The Fbi.
It is likely that Thompson is not the author of all of the threats, as some have come from overseas accounts. He may well be a copycat, however, latching on to the larger story to get revenge for a romance gone wrong.
The wave of anti-Semitic threats, coupled with the desecration of Jewish cemeteries has become a national cause celebre with both President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan denouncing the campaign.
Some in the media hinted that the sudden rash of hate crimes might have been connected to the rise of Trump to the presidency. However, the fact that many of the threats likely came from outside America would suggest a Middle East and other terrorist motives.
In any case, Thompson seems like a complicated, troubled piece of work.
He is not the first “journalist” who has been caught passing off fiction as news stories. His vendetta against his former girlfriend may have, in part, been racially motivated as some of his emails and tweets suggest. He is African American, and she is white, according to news reports. He sounds like someone in need of a mental health professional as well as the attentions of the criminal justice system should he be convicted of the crimes he has been accused of.
