Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A Las Vegas area Jewish centre is searched for bombs after a suspicious phone call

A former journalist has been arrested on suspicion of making threats against Jewish community centres - in a bizarre plot against an ex-girlfriend.

Juan Thompson, 31, "allegedly caused havoc, expending hundreds of hours of police and law enforcement resources", said NYPD Commissioner James P O'Neill.

New York prosecutors said he was "stalking a former romantic interest".

The Missouri man was allegedly behind eight of some 100 threats to Jewish Community Centers (JCC) this year.

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Image copyright The Intercept Image caption Juan Thompson was fired last year from the Intercept over "fabricated sources and quotes in his articles"

Mr Thompson was arrested on Friday in St Louis, Missouri, and will be in court later in the day.

As well as the threats against the JCCs in January and February, he is also accused of emailing a threat in his ex-girlfriend's name to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in New York City.

The next day the offices of the Jewish anti-bigotry group received a phone call claiming that explosive material had been placed inside the building.

"Today, we have charged Juan Thompson with allegedly stalking a former romantic interest by, among other things, making bomb threats in her name to Jewish Community Centers and to the Anti-Defamation League," New York-based US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

A spokesman for the White House said "it's still too early for us to say too much about it, but the process worked".

Image copyright Twitter Image caption Thompson's Twitter account made many references to the bomb threats

Mr Thompson is accused of cyber-stalking his ex-girlfriend - known in court documents as Victim-1 - which can carry a sentence of up to five years in jail.

He is also alleged to have made threats using his own real name, in a ploy to make it look like she was trying to frame him.

On 7 February, he allegedly wrote an email to the JCC offices in Manhattan, saying: "Juan Thompson put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today.

"He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow."

Image copyright AP Image caption Authorities respond to a threat in Davie, Florida

This was a reference to the 2012 school shooting in Connecticut in which a gunman murdered 26 people.

In several tweets presented by investigators, Mr Thompson repeatedly accused his former girlfriend of making bomb threats in his name, in order to pin the crime on him.

He claimed she had hacked his email account.

"[Victim-1], though I can't prove it, even sent a bomb threat in my name to a Jewish center, which was odd given her antisemitic statement," he posted on 24 February 2017.

He also made several posts condemning the anti-Jewish threats.

Image copyright Twitter

It was allegedly part of a months-long campaign against his former partner after they broke up in July 2016.

Thompson began by sending an email to her manager at a New York-area social service organisation.

The message claimed she had been pulled over for drunk driving and sued for spreading a sexually transmitted disease.

He allegedly went on to threaten to publish nude photos of the woman, before escalating to the bomb threats this year.

On 24 February, he posted on Twitter: "Y'all know how to get a social worker in NY barred? I'm being stalked and harassed by a white nasty white woman."

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A Stand Against Hate rally was held on Thursday in Philadelphia

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The rally was organised after a local Jewish cemetery was vandalised

Mr Thompson was fired last year from the Intercept, a news website, over "fabricated sources and quotes in his articles".

Intercept management released a statement on Friday saying they were "horrified" to learn about the arrest, and that they condemn the "heinous" threats.

At least 100 phone threats have been made to Jewish centres, childcare facilities and schools in three dozen states since the beginning of January, according to the JCC Association of North America.

Three Jewish cemeteries, including one near St Louis, have also faced vandalism attacks.</s>A man who authorities said was arrested Friday for making a series of recent threats against Jewish Community Centers in an attempt to vilify his ex-girlfriend is a former journalist who was fired from a publication for falsifying stories.

Juan Thompson was arrested Friday in St. Louis and charged with one count of cyberstalking. Authorities said he is believed to have made at least eight threats against Jewish Community Centers and the Anti-Defamation League in recent months, a handful of the more than 100 threats currently under investigation so far this year.

“The defendant allegedly caused havoc, expending hundreds of hours of police and law enforcement resources to respond and investigate these threats,” said New York City Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill. “We will continue to pursue those who peddle fear, making false claims about serious crimes.”

Mr. Thompson had previously worked for the online news organization, The Intercept, but was fired in 2016 after the outlet discovered he had fabricated sources and quotes in several of his articles.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Thompson began harassing his ex-girlfriend after they broke up in July 2016, initially by pretending to be from a news organization and contacting her employer to say that she had been pulled over for drunken driving. The harassment escalated over the next several months, with the 31-year-old making a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that his ex-girlfriend was in possession of child pornography, according to a federal complaint filed in court.

When police contacted Mr. Thompson about the claim, he denied making it and said his email had been hacked, the complaint states. He was warned by police to stop harassing his ex-girlfriend, who by that point had taken out a protective order against him.

In January and February, as authorities were investigating a series of bomb threats made against Jewish Community Centers across the country, authorities said Mr. Thompson began making threats to several centers. Prosecutors believe he is responsible for at least eight of the threats, including a bomb threat made against the Anti-Defamation League’s headquarters in New York on Feb. 22.

The Anti-Defamation League said Mr. Thompson was on the radar of their Center on Extremism on account of his prior falsification of articles during his time at The Intercept.

One story fabricated by Mr. Thompson was about Dylann Roof, the white gunman who killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. The story, which was later retracted by The Intercept, stated that Roof had previously been dumped by his girlfriend for a black man.

“Most recently, Thompson allegedly announced in November 2016 that he was running for mayor of St. Louis, to ‘fight back against Trumpian fascism and socio-economic terrorism,’ ” the ADL said in a statement Friday. “According to ADL research, Thompson also claimed that he wanted to dismantle the system of ‘racial supremacy and greedy capitalism that is stacked against us.’ He created a Gofundme page to raise $5,000 for his ostensible election bid. He got $25. He has tweeted various rants against white people, calling them ‘trash’ and saying they ‘have no shame.’”

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said the organization was “received and gratified” by news of the arrest. The Intercept confirmed in a statement Friday that Mr. Thompson had previously worked at the news outlet.

“We were horrified to learn this morning that Juan Thompson, a former employee of The Intercept, has been arrested in connection with bomb threats against the ADL and multiple Jewish Community Centers in addition to cyberstalking,” said managing editor Charlotte Greensit. “These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted.”</s>Now that the name Juan Thompson. or “Juan M. Thompson,” has emerged as the man arrested in recent bomb threats against Jewish community centers, folks are searching for photos of Juan. It turns out that Thompson’s photos are easily found because the man who was arrested in connection with bomb threats to allegedly eight Jewish community centers and schools across the U.S. was a former journalist. As reported by the New York Times, Thompson hails from St. Louis, and although throughout photos and writings on Juan’s Twitter page, the 31-year-old Thompson blames a woman for setting him up, the publication claims that Thompson was the one who set up the woman who dumped him. Photos of Juan and his tweets can be seen below.

According to the Daily Mail, it was allegedly Thompson who cyber-stalked a woman who broke up with him and made threats to the Jewish community centers in her name. The woman that Juan named via his Twitter account has deleted her Instagram account. More than 100 JCC centers have been threatened in the recent past.

Meanwhile, many photos of Juan are making their way onto the Twitter photos tab under the name Juan Thompson in the wake of Thompson’s arrest.

According to the Washington Post, Juan was arrested on Friday, and he is believed to have not only made some of the bomb threats in his own name, but he is also thought to have made some of the bomb threats in the name of his ex-girlfriend, a woman that Juan allegedly cyber-stalked and harassed via Thompson’s Twitter account by blaming her for the crime. It is being called Juan’s campaign of online harassment against his former lover. Prosecutors claim that Thompson not only harassed and threatened the centers with bomb threats, but that Juan also engaged in cyberstalking.

Juan could spend up to five years in prison if Thompson is found guilty of his charges. Juan is also being charged with making false reports and with sending faxes and emails to his ex-lover’s employer. Juan even claimed that his ex-girlfriend had child pornography. Thompson later told authorities his Twitter and Internet had been hacked. The threats being attributed to Juan to Jewish centers referenced the Newtown massacre.

Juan’s Twitter page is still filled with rants — as of this writing — with claims that a woman tried to frame Thompson and even threatened President Donald Trump. According to Heavy, the arrest of Thompson happened after the FBI decided to bring charges against Juan for what the government called a pattern of harassment waged by Thompson. The FBI wrote that Juan was charged with stalking his former romantic interest by making bomb threats in her name to both to Jewish Community Centers and to the Anti-Defamation League. The FBI tracked down Juan’s activities via his IP address.

As of this writing, the Twitter account named Juan M. Thompson is still online @JuanMThompson on Twitter, with the following profile description for Juan.

Meanwhile, Juan’s former employer wrote the following about why they fired Thompson.</s>A Missouri man has been charged in connection with a series of bomb threats made to Jewish centers in New York City, federal officials said Friday.

Juan Thompson, 31, allegedly made at least eight threats to Jewish centers, including the Anti-Defamation League ’s headquarters, in the last two months, according to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Officials said Thompson phoned in and emailed several menacing messages to the centers within the last two months in his ex-girlfriend’s name in an attempt to harass her.

“Threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race — whatever the motivation — are unacceptable, un-American, and criminal,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Thompson was arrested early Friday in St. Louis but is being charged in New York, an FBI spokeswoman told TIME. He has been charged with cyberstalking and faces up to five years in prison.

Federal prosecutors say they believe Thompson was on a mission to frame his unnamed ex-girlfriend after their relationship ended.

He allegedly emailed the Anti-Defamation League in late February, saying the woman “is behind the bomb threats against jews,” officials said in a criminal complaint. “She lives in nyc and is making more bomb threats tomorrow,” the email said.

The civil rights group received a phone call claiming a bomb was inside its Manhattan office the next day.

Officials also allege Thompson pretended to be his ex-girlfriend to make it seem like she was trying to frame him for the crimes. A Jewish community center in New York City said it received an emailed bomb threat from an anonymous email account on Feb. 7. The message said: “Juan Thompson put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today. He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow.”</s>NEW YORK (AP) — A jilted ex-boyfriend is behind at least eight of the scores of threats made against Jewish Community Centers nationwide, plus a bomb threat to New York’s Anti-Defamation League, in an effort to harass and vilify his former girlfriend, federal officials said Friday.

Juan Thompson was arrested in St. Louis and will appear in federal court in Missouri on Friday afternoon on a charge of cyberstalking, authorities said. There was no information on an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

According to a federal complaint, Thompson dated the woman until last summer, when they broke up. The following day, her boss received an email purporting to be from a national news organization saying that she’d been pulled over for drunken driving.

The harassment got worse from there, federal officials said. The Anti-Defamation League received an email on Feb. 21 that said she was behind the bomb threats to JCCs and there’d be more the next day. On Feb. 22, it received a phoned-in bomb threat.

He also claimed she was responsible for placing a bomb in a Jewish center in Dallas, and he also emailed a JCC in San Diego saying she wanted to “kill as many Jews asap.”

Federal officials have been investigating 122 bomb threats called into nearly 100 JCC schools, child care and other similar facilities in three dozen states.

Associated Press writer Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.</s>A man allegedly waging an intense campaign of harassment against a former lover was responsible for bomb threats against the Anti-Defamation League and some Jewish centers around the country, authorities said Friday.

Law enforcement sources told NBC 4 New York the 31-year-old suspect, Juan Thompson, was arrested in St. Louis in connection with multiple threats against Jewish centers, including some in the New York tri-state area.

But additional sources told NBC News Thompson is not believed to be the person behind the series of threats targeting Jewish community centers across the nation in recent months.

There have been five such waves of threats this year, forcing dozens of evacuations in multiple states. No injuries have been reported in any of the cases and no devices have been found. The FBI is assisting in that probe.

Thompson is considered a "copycat," the sources said. A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan indicated that Thompson was trying to "harass and intimidate" an unnamed victim with whom he had a relationship.

He allegedly made at least eight of the threats -- some in the victim's name, and some in his own name, as part of a purported campaign to smear the victim. Thompson allegedly went to extreme lengths to do so, including sending hoax faxes to the woman's employer last year alleging she had made anti-Semitic statements on social media, according to the complaint.

He was allegedly behind a threat to the national ADL headquarters in Manhattan last week. According to the FBI complaint, the emailed threat named the woman and said she was "behind the bomb threats against the jews. She lives in nyc and is making more bomb threats tomorrow." The next day, the ADL received a phone call claiming a bomb was in its headquarters.

An anonymous threat emailed to a JCC in Manhattan earlier in February included Thompson's own name. It said he "put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today. He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow," the complaint. "Newtown" apparently refers to the December 2012 massacre at a Connecticut school that claimed the lives of 26 people, including 20 children.

The FBI complaint quotes Thompson’s purported Twitter account as saying on Feb. 24, “Know any good lawyers? Need to stop this nasty/racist #whitegirl I dated who sent a bomb threat in my name & wants me to be raped in jail.”

The exact same tweet on the same date appears on the Twitter account @JuanMThompson. That same account sent a number of other tweets in late February that match the FBI complaint word for word.

That same Twitter account was also linked to a journalist, Juan Thompson, who wrote for online publication The Intercept from late 2014 until early 2016. In February 2016, The Intercept said Thompson fabricated quotes in his stories and created fake email accounts to impersonate people.

Thompson is charged with one count of cyberstalking, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, in connection with the case. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Missouri later Friday. Information on an attorney for him wasn't immediately available.

"Today, we have charged Juan Thompson with allegedly stalking a former romantic interest by, among other things, making bomb threats in her name to Jewish Community Centers and to the Anti-Defamation League," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said. "Threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race – whatever the motivation – are unacceptable, un-American, and criminal."

"The defendant allegedly caused havoc, expending hundreds of hours of police and law enforcement resources to respond and investigate these threats," O'Neill said. "We will continue to pursue those who peddle fear, making false claims about serious crimes."</s>The FBI has arrested former Intercept reporter Juan Thompson in connection with bomb threats made to at least eight Jewish community centers, schools, and the Anti-Defamation League's Manhattan headquarters, authorities said Friday.

Thompson is accused of making some of the threats in the name of an ex-girlfriend as part of a "sustained campaign to harass and intimidate" her, according to a criminal complaint. He has also been charged with one count of cyberstalking.

In the complaint, authorities cited tweets from Thompson that mentioned the ex-girlfriend as well as bomb threats.

"Know any good lawyers? Need to stop this nasty/racist #whitegirl I dated who sent a bomb threat in my name wants me to be raped in jail," one of the cited tweets said.

The tweet was sent by the Twitter handle @juanmthompson, which is listed on the Intercept's website as belonging to the reporter who was fired last year after being accused of fabricating quotes and creating fake email accounts to impersonate sources and an editor.

Authorities have been investigating a slew of threats targeting dozens of Jewish community centers in recent months. Police sources told ABC News and NBC News that they didn't think Thompson was behind most of these threats.

Thompson is accused of sending defamatory emails and faxes to the victim's employer, accusing her of making anti-Semitic social-media posts.

The complaint also accused Thompson of emailing a threat last week to the Anti-Defamation League naming the woman and saying she was "behind the bomb threats against the jews."

Another threat made anonymously to a Jewish community center in Manhattan last month said Thompson "put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today," according to the complaint, which said the threat added: "He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow."

"The defendant allegedly caused havoc, expending hundreds of hours of police and law enforcement resources to respond and investigate these threats," New York Police Department Commissioner James O'Neill told media Friday.

In a statement, The Intercept called the actions described in the complaint "heinous" and said it had no further information about the charges against him.

"We were horrified to learn this morning that Juan Thompson, a former employee of The Intercept, has been arrested in connection with bomb threats against the ADL and multiple Jewish Community Centers in addition to cyberstalking," the statement read.

Thompson is due to appear in federal court in St. Louis later on Friday.</s>A former journalist, who worked in Chicago, has been arrested in relation to several threats of violence against Jewish community centers.Juan Thompsons' journalism career went down the tubes a year ago when he was fired from online magazine The Intercept for making up quotes. Thompson was in Chicago in 2013 and 2014 as a news intern and reporter. He's now in federal lockup in St. Louis, charged in connection with threats against Jewish community centers and, according to prosecutors, motivated by revenge against an ex-girlfriend.FBI agents removed electronics, paper records and boxloads of other potential evidence Friday from Thompson's St. Louis home. The 31-year-old was arrested on a federal cyberstalking complaint after being accused in a bizarre, months-long campaign against an ex-girlfriend in Brooklyn.Part of the plot, according to investigators, included launching a series of copycat bomb threats against Jewish organizations across the country. Thompson allegedly emailed the threats to Jewish community centers, schools, a museum and other organizations on eight days in January and February, either using his ex-girlfriend's name or his own.Thompson made news a year ago when he was fired from The Intercept after his ethical breaches were exposed. Prior to that he was an intern at the online DNAInfo Chicago and public radio station WBEZ.DNAInfo Chicago still displays the stories he covered and wrote in July and August of 2013, and he is still listed as a staff reporter on the DNAInfo New York website, although DNAInfo sources said he hasn't' worked at their company in more than three years.Investigators said they are still looking into his possible connection to a larger series of threats against Jewish centers, but it would appear there are still suspects on the loose without connection to the Thompson case."Just because there's been an arrest today around our bomb threat doesn't meant the threats will disappear or stop. Hate towards the Jewish community or other minority groups is very real and deeply concerning," said Evan Bernstein of the Anti-Defamation League.After Thompson became aware he was under investigation, he took to social media claiming that his ex-girlfriend was trying to falsely implicate him.Thompson appeared in federal court in St. Louis Friday afternoon with his ankles and wrists shackled. He will be held until a detention hearing next Wednesday. There have been at least 100 bomb threats against Jewish community centers in Illinois and 32 other states so far this year."We were horrified to learn this morning that Juan Thompson, a former employee of The Intercept, has been arrested in connection with bomb threats against the ADL and multiple Jewish Community Centers in addition to cyberstalking. These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted. We have no information about the charges against Thompson other than what is included in the criminal complaint. Thompson worked for The Intercept from November 2014 to January 2016, when he was fired after we discovered that he had fabricated sources and quotes in his articles."</s>A jilted ex-boyfriend is behind at least eight of the scores of threats made against Jewish Community Centers nationwide, plus a bomb threat to New York's Anti-Defamation League, in an effort to harass and vilify his former girlfriend, federal officials said Friday. Juan Thompson was arrested in St. Louis and will appear in federal court in Missouri on Friday afternoon on a charge of cyberstalking, authorities said.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Hollywood Reporter.</s>ST. LOUIS - A man has been arrested by the FBI in St. Louis, accused of making threats against at least eight Jewish community centers nationwide.

According to the FBI, 31-year-old Juan Thompson is accused of cyberstalking a former girlfriend and making threats in the victim's name. He allegedly threatened a Jewish museum and a school in New York, as well as a Jewish school in Michigan.

According to a federal complaint, Thompson dated the woman until last summer, when they broke up. The following day, her boss received an email purporting to be from a national news organization saying that she'd been pulled over for drunken driving.

The harassment got worse from there, federal officials said. The Anti-Defamation League received an email on Feb. 21 that said she was behind the bomb threats to JCCs and there'd be more the next day. On Feb. 22, it received a phoned-in bomb threat.

Authorities describe Thompson as a "copy cat," saying it's not believed he's behind he wave of threats against Jewish community centers that began a few months ago.

More than 100 threats have been made against Jewish community centers and Jewish day schools so far this year, including 31 bomb threats made nationwide on Monday. The St. Louis Jewish Community Center was evacuated after a bomb threat on January 18.

"Thompson's alleged pattern of harassment not only involved the defamation of his female victim, but his threats intimidated an entire community," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. "The FBI and our partners take these crimes seriously. I would also like to thank the NYPD and the New York State Police, who continue to work shoulder to shoulder with us as we investigate and track down every single threat and work together to achieve justice for our communities that have been victimized by these threats."

Thompson is expected to make an initial federal court appearance at 2 p.m. Friday in St. Louis.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Juan M. Thompson, a 31-year-old ex-journalist, is arrested and charged with making at least eight threats against Jewish Community Centers in the United States, as well as a threat made against the Anti-Defamation League, while allegedly impersonating a former girlfriend.