A California man who allegedly warned he would kill employees of the Boston Globe as he called them the “enemy of the people” has been arrested by the FBI, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Robert Chain made a series of concerning calls to the Boston Globe’s newsroom after the publication revealed that it was asking other U.S. media outlets to publish a coordinated editorial response to President Trump’s attacks on the press, according to court documents. Chain accused the Globe of being the “enemy of the people” and said “we’re going to kill every fucking one of you.”
[Trump: I enjoy seeing the ‘totally unhinged’ fake news media ‘going crazy’]
Chain, 68, has been charged with one count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce. He will be transferred to Boston after he appears in a federal Los Angeles court Thursday afternoon.
“In the past few months, this office has charged people with threatening to bomb a minority commencement ceremony at Harvard, threatening to shoot people at a Second Amendment rally, offering money to anyone who kills a federal agent, and mailing white powder and threatening notes to certain public figures,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a statement. “Anyone – regardless of political affiliation – who puts others in fear for their lives will be prosecuted by this office. In a time of increasing political polarization, and amid the increasing incidence of mass shootings, members of the public must police their own political rhetoric. Or we will.”
“Everyone has a right to express their opinion, but threatening to kill people, takes it over the line and will not be tolerated,” Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, said in a statement. “Today’s arrest of Robert Chain should serve a warning to others, that making threats is not a prank, it’s a federal crime. All threats are taken seriously, as we never know if the subject behind the threat intends to follow through with their actions. Whether potentially hoax or not, each and every threat will be aggressively run to ground.”
Court documents say the threatening calls from Chain began after the Globe officially requested on Aug. 10 that media outlets publish editorials in a coordinated effort in response to Trump’s attacks against the press. After the editorials were published on Aug. 16, Chain called the Globe again and said he would shoot Globe employees “later today, a 4 o’clock.” Court documents indicate Chain made approximately 14 threatening calls to the Globe in August.
Trump has routinely condemned the media and labeled outlets including CNN and the New York Times as “fake news.” As recently as Thursday morning, Trump accused CNN of being the “Enemy of the People.”
Trump was asked in a recent interview with Fox News in August whether the press was the “enemy of the people,” to which he said “fake news” was the enemy.
“No, not at all. But the fake news is,” Trump said. “And the fake news is comprised of — it’s a lot. It’s a big chunk, okay? Somebody said, ‘What’s the chunk?’ I said, ‘80 percent.’ It’s a lot. It’s a lot. If I do something well, it’s not reported. Other than in the 20 percent.”
