According to a statement released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday, FBI agents have arrested a man who reportedly made threats against The Boston Globe after the paper led a campaign with other news organizations to publish coordinated editorials condemning President Trump for his attacks against the press.
The DOJ said that Robert Chain, 68, a self-described Trump supporter from Encino, Calif., is being charged with one count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce.
Chain’s arrest, which was first reported by NBC News, comes weeks after hundreds of newspapers around the country published editorials denouncing Trump’s rhetoric towards the press.
“To label the press ‘the enemy of the people’ is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries,” the Globe wrote in its editorial.
Court documents show that Chain began threatening The Globe right after it announced its plans for coordinated editorials.
Authorities said that Chain threatened to travel to The Globe’s newsroom and shoot employees. He is being accused of making 14 threatening phone calls between Aug. 10 and Aug. 22 — ones in which he referred to the newspaper as “the enemy of the people,” echoing a line Trump has repeatedly said of the press.
“You’re the enemy of the people, and we’re going to kill every f–king one of you,” Chain said, according to NBC News.
Officials from the Boston police told Boston 7 News that they did not think the threat was “super serious.” Regardless, police increased patrols around the building and told the news station that the FBI was investigating.
Trump responded to the coordinated editorials by accusing the Globe of “collusion with other papers.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Political Dig.
