Jewish Community Center Bomb Threat Suspect Arrested

Disgraced former Missouri journalist Juan Thomason was arrested Friday and charged with making at least eight of the dozens of bomb threats against Jewish organizations across the country over the last few months. Thompson is accused of making the threats to harass and intimidate an ex-girlfriend, the Justice Department said.

Two threats have been reported in Michigan, though it’s not clear if Thompson, of St. Louis, will be charged in those incidents. An investigation is ongoing into the widespread robocall threats made to Jewish Community Centers across the country, including one at a Jewish Community Center school in West Bloomfield Township in January and another at a JCC in Ann Arbor Monday.

Thompson, who was fired for fabricating sources while working at the Interceptor, was charged with cyberstalking and communicating threats, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

The West Bloomfield school was evacuated after the bomb threat on Jan. 18. A police sweep of the building revealed no explosives, but the students were shaken up by an increase in threats against Jews.

Thompson was behind threats made to the Anti-Defamation League's Manhattan headquarters, the release said. Those threats, though, were made under a woman's name “as part of a sustained campaign to harass and intimidate” her shortly after they ended a romantic relationship, according to the Justice Department’s news release.

The woman was not named by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In one instance, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the ADL's Manhattan office got an email that said the woman "is behind the bomb threats against jews. She lives in nyc and is making more bomb threats tomorrow.” The next day, the office got an email saying explosive material was in the ADL's building, according to the complaint.

Some of the threats were made in his name, and he tried to pin them on the woman and say she was framing him, the complaint said.

A Feb. 21 threat sent to a Manhattan JCC, according to the complaint, said Thompson “put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today. He wants to create Jewish Newtown tomorrow,” referring to the 2010 slaughter of 20 children in a Connecticut elementary school.

Later, a Twitter account that authorities believe belongs to Thompson alleged that the woman “even sent a bomb threat in my name to a Jewish center, which was odd given her anti-semitic statements.”

Patch is not linking to the referenced tweet because it includes the woman's name.

“Threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race – whatever the motivation – are unacceptable, un-American, and criminal,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in the release. “We are committed to pursuing and prosecuting those who foment fear and hate through such criminal threats.”

Thompson also once worked for The Intercept, a left-leaning news website that published documents released by Edward Snowden about the NSA's surveillance techniques.

Thompson was fired in January 2016 after editors at the publication found he had made up sources and quotes.

“We were horrified this morning to learn 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,” a statement from Intercept editor Betsy Reed said. “These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted.”

His harassment of his victim was not limited to the Jewish center threats, the complaint said.

In July 2016, the victim's employer got an email saying she had broken the law, the complaint said, and the email was traced back to an IP address used by one of Thompson's social media accounts. In October 2016, an IP address traced back to Thompson's residence was used to falsely accuse his victim of possessing child pornography, the complaint said.

Thompson's arrest followed an investigation that involved the FBI and the NYPD.

“Thompson’s alleged pattern of harassment not only involved the defamation of his female victim, but his threats intimidated an entire community,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said in the release.

Written by Marc Torrence, Patch national staff

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