Hoax Bomber Sentenced For Threatening NYC Jewish Centers

MURRAY HILL, NY — The ex-journalist who called in fake bomb threats to a dozen Jewish organizations across the country was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison, prosecutors said.

Juan Thompson will serve 60 months in prison after he admitted to calling in fake bomb threats to Jewish organizations in New York City and other cities in an attempt to harass his ex-girlfriend.

"Today, Juan Thompson was held to account and justly punished for his efforts to harass an ex-girlfriend by sending disturbing and dangerous hoax threats to Jewish Community Centers and other organizations across the country in her name," acting U.S. attorney Joon Kim said in a statement.

"Thompson’s harassment and threats caused severe distress to both his victim and to Jewish communities around the country."

Thompson pleaded guilty in June to cyberstalking and making hoax bomb threats. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release once he finishes his prison sentence.

Thompson, 32, was arrested in March after making the string of fake bomb threats. Thompson's threats against at least a dozen Jewish organizations were part of a months-long campaign to harass and stalk his ex-girlfriend, officials said.

Investigators said that Thompson's effort to stalk his ex-girlfriend began in 2016 after she ended their relationship. From July 2016 through February 2017, Thompson harassed the woman.

In June, he admitted to starting the harassment by contacting the woman's employer and making false allegations about her, including that she possessed child pornography.

On Feb. 21, Thompson emailed the Anti-Defamation League to tell the nonprofit that his ex-girlfriend "is behind the bomb threats against jews. She lives in nyc and is making more bomb threats tomorrow." The next day, Thompson called in a fake threat to the Murray Hill headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League. He said that explosive material had been placed inside.

On some occasions, Thompson made the threats in his own name in an attempt to accuse his ex-girlfriend of trying to frame him. On Feb. 7, authorities said a Jewish Community Center in Manhattan received an anonymous email which stated that Thompson wanted to "create Jewish newtown tomorrow," a reference to the 2012 mass shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in which a gunman killed 26 people, most of them children.

Thompson previously worked as a journalist for new outlets including The Intercept, where he was fired after being found to have fabricated quotes in his stories, according to the news outlet's editor.

Thompson's threats were part of a startling rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the country in 2017. The Anti-Defamation League's data suggests that anti-Semitic acts increased by nearly 70 percent in the first ten months of 2017 compared to the same time frame in the previous year.

In a witness impact statement provided to New York Magazine, Thompson's ex-girlfriend said he began harassing her even before they broke up, sending emails and texts while posing as her ex-boyfriends. The woman, a social worker in New York City, said the NYPD had failed to take her reports of harassment from Thompson seriously until it had escalated.

"The reality is that I asked for help from law enforcement over 20 times. I asked for restraining orders to stop him," she wrote in the impact statement. "I was told by police, verbatim, 'It will get worse and then we can try to help.' Because he was using the internet as his method of violence, the police did not recognize the severity of harm."

This post has been updated with additional information.

Image credit: Warren County Sheriff's Department via AP, File Image caption: This undated file photo provided by the Warren County Sheriff's Department in Warrenton, Mo., shows Juan Thompson.