WASHINGTON -- The FBI said Thursday that it charged a California man who threatened to kill employees of the The Boston Globe after calling them the "enemy of the people" in a series of menacing phone calls.
Robert Chain, 68, was arrested Thursday at his home in Encino, Calif. The FBI said Chain owned several firearms and had recently purchased a small-caliber rifle.
According to federal documents, Chain began calling The Boston Globe immediately after the newspaper announced Aug. 10 that it would publish a coordinated editorial response to political attacks on the media. Prosecutors said the threats were in retaliation for The Globe's leadership in the editorial campaign.
In one call to the paper's newsroom, Chain threatened to shoot the newspaper's employees in the head, the FBI said. Three days later, in another call, Chain said: "You're the enemy of the people." Using profane language, he threatened to kill "every" Globe employee.
President Donald Trump has embraced the phrase "enemy of the people." Media executives have decried the expression, calling it an assault on the First Amendment and warning that it could trigger acts of violence among the president's most ardent supporters in the United States and embolden authoritarian political movements overseas.
On Thursday, the president once again used the phrase: "I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is," he wrote on Twitter. "Truth doesn't matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People!"
The FBI said there were about 12 threatening calls made to the paper.
According to the FBI, Chain promised to keep harassing the paper as long as it kept "attacking the president, the duly elected president of the United States, in the continuation of your treasonous and seditious acts."
Authorities said that Chain faces one felony count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce. He was set to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday and then be transferred to Boston, where he was charged.
A Section on 08/31/2018