The Atlantic

The FBI Arrests a Man for Making Bomb Threats Against Jewish Institutions

The alleged perpetrator is a former reporter who was fired for fabricating stories. He is accused of being responsible for only a small fraction of the threats made in recent weeks.
Source: Wilfredo Lee / AP

The FBI has arrested one suspect in connection with the recent bomb threats against Jewish institutions and Jewish Community Centers, known as JCCs. According to the arrest warrant, a culprit in at least some of the threats is Juan Thompson, a St. Louis native who was fired from his jobin early 2016 for fabricating stories. The FBI alleged that Thompson “appears to have made some of the JCC threats as part of a sustained campaign to harass and intimidate” a former girlfriend. The details in the FBI arrest warrant against Thompson link him to eight specific threats. But they do not account for the much larger wave of phone calls threatening Jewish institutions.

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