The Story Behind A Man Arrested for JCC Bomb Threats Is Gonna Get Weird

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 3, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 3, 2017 |

A man named Juan Thompson was arrested today for making bomb threats against several Jewish organization, including the ADL. Juan Thompson is 31, lives in St. Louis, and the Twitter address given in the complaint filed by the FBI matches the same Juan Thompson from St. Louis who was fired from the Intercept for fabricating quotes last year.

FBI has made an arrest of Juan Thompson for allegedly making threats to Jewish Community Centers. Full details to come from @SNDYnews

— FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) March 3, 2017

That’s only the beginning, but before we go any further, note that the complaint filed by the FBI notes only 8 bomb threats, seven of which were via email. My assumption is that this is probably not THE guy responsible for the bulk of the JCC bomb threats, but rather a copy-catter who was making additional bomb threats as part of a cyberstalking effort against his ex-girlfriend.

So again, it appears Juan Thompson is accused of a short list of copycat crimes, fewer than 10% of the recent threats against Jewish groups.

— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) March 3, 2017

The complaint basically suggests that Thompson made most of these threats in his ex-girlfriend’s name, and then suggested on Twitter that his ex-girlfriend was trying to frame him for these bomb threats so that he would be raped in prison. This particular tweet was cited in the complaint.

Here are other pertinent tweets from the same account.

So, basically, it appears as though we’re looking at an unhinged dude, with a history of fabricating stories, who started copy-catting the JCC bomb threats and blaming it on his girlfriend, who he claimed was a racist. It should be noted that Juan Thompson was also charged with cyberstalking (he had been stalking her for six months before he called in the bomb threats).

What’s worse is that he was also tweeting against the bomb threats.

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

Anyway, you’re going to hear a lot about this today. This guy voted for Sanders. He was an online writer. He’s claiming reverse racism. Right-wingers are already yelling, “Typical liberal!” on Twitter. But it appears that he’s also not THE guy responsible for the bulk of the 108 bomb threats made against the JCC, but a guy who made a few threats in an attempt to intimidate his ex-girlfriend. In other words, there’s still somebody — or somebodies — out there making bomb threats against JCCs.

Here’s a link to the FBI complaint.