Left-Wing ‘Journalist’ Who Made Up Inflammatory Racial Stories Arrested for Anti-Jewish Bomb Threats
Juan Thompson has a history of pinning bigoted actions on others, particularly to make the right look bad.
Juan Thompson, who was fired from his journalism job in December for fabricating news articles, was arrested Friday for threatening to bomb Jewish community centers, schools and museums. The FBI filed a complaint accusing Juan Thompson, 31, of making at least eight bomb threats and cyberstalking an ex-girlfriend. Thompson made up a story that his former girlfriend pretended to be him and had made the threats. He anonymously informed the Anti-Defamation League, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other ethnic organizations that she had placed bombs within their facilities or related facilities.
Federal authorities were in the process of investigating over 100 bomb threats made to Jewish locations across three states that began on January 9. Thompson began his “copycat” threats on January 28. University City, Missouri, police Lt. Fredrick Lemons says detectives also intend to question Thompson about 154 headstones toppled last month at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis.
Cyberstalking
Reported Fabrications by Juan Thompson
-Impersonated The Inquisitor‘s editor in chief with a fake email account
-Tweeted he was “feverishly struggling” with testicular cancer, but later deleted the tweets
-Pretended he was on track to graduate from Vassar College
-Claimed he had been accepted into The University of Chicago Law School with a full scholarship
-Fabricated an interview with a criminal justice professor about murdered black women
-Claimed his dad told him he had murdered four people
-Said his mother had been arrested for being mistaken for another women who had outstanding warrants, not her own warrant
-Took imaginary trips to Cuba and Senagal
-Pretended to get a tattoo of Malcolm X
-Claimed he was with the Standing Rock protesters in North Dakota
-Bought a house in Detroit
-Claimed he’d cooked homemade kombucha and homemade kimchi — but had stolen the photo from a blogger
Thompson has a disturbing history of harassing his ex-girlfriend, who he identifies as Francesca Rossi. According to the AP,
[H]er boss received an email purporting to be from a national news organization saying she’d been pulled over for drunken driving. … She received an anonymous email with nude photos of herself and a threat to release them to the public. Her boss got a note saying she had a sexually transmitted disease. The company got anonymous faxes saying she was anti-Semitic. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children got a note saying the woman watched child porn.
None of this information appears to be true. The FBI complaint also reveals that Thompson falsely told Rossi that he had been shot in an armed robbery, was dying and about to be removed from life support. After that, Rossi obtained a restraining order against him. His harassment continued, including sending an email to her boss accusing her of trying to kill him.
He vocally tweeted hateful things about her. One of Thompson’s tweets referenced in the criminal complaint stated, “Know any good lawyers? Need to stop this nasty/racist [white girl] I dated who sent a bomb threat in my name & wants me to be raped in jail.”
Fake News
Thompson lost his job with The Intercept after it was discovered that many of his articles included fake news, in particular inflammatory racial stories. In one article about Dylann Roof, the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter, Thompson pretended to interview a cousin of the perpetrator. The cousin, who did not exist, supposedly told Thompson that Roof was angry that a woman he liked was dating a black man. Several reputable news outlets reported his fake news. The Intercept later retracted the story. The publication has since deleted several of Thompson’s articles from the site and added disclaimers to others.
Thompson appears to have been hired by The Intercept to provide more diversity within the news organization, and to provide perspectives on racial issues. However, all he accomplished was to falsely inflame racial tensions. Another one of his “colorful” stories portrayed a dramatic account of being in Ferguson during the riots.
Thompson pretended to be sympathetic toward the Jewish center in tweets. Notably, his Twitter feed is full of anti-Trump tweets and progressive viewpoints.
Another week, another round of threats against Jewish ppl. In the middle of the day, you know who's at a JCC? Kids. KIDS.
— Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 27, 2017
After Riverfront Times reporter Doyle Murphy wrote a lengthy article about Thompson, Thompson turned his sights on the journalist. He emailed his boss and tried to get him fired. Then anonymous Twitter accounts popped up. One claimed that Murphy was a racist, tweeting at Murphy’s boss and other journalists around St. Louis. The same thing happened with Facebook accounts. Murphy complained to Twitter and Facebook in order to get them shut down. He went to the police, and discovered the same thing was happening to one of Thompson’s former roommates. Murphy mused, “It was strange, over the top and kind of funny in a gallows-humor sort of way, but it also made me realize that whatever Thompson seemed to be doing to me, it was probably way worse for his ex.”
Murphy noticed that Thompson continues to tweet bizarre claims. Thompson says he’s traveling in Cuba, but they were images he had found through Google images. Same with a tattoo of Malcolm he supposedly had just gotten inked. A new Twitter account was started that appeared to be from a woman who had a crush on Thompson in high school.
In November, Thompson tweeted that he was converting to Islam. But was it true?
