F.B.I. Arrests California Man After Threats to Kill Boston Globe Employees - New York Times

F.B.I. Arrests California Man After Threats to Kill Boston Globe Employees

By Adam Goldman
Aug. 30, 2018

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. said on Thursday that it charged a California man who threatened to kill employees of The Boston Globe after calling them the “enemy of the people” in a series of menacing phone calls.

Robert D. Chain, 68, was arrested on Thursday at his home in Encino, Calif. The F.B.I. said Mr. Chain owned several firearms and had recently purchased a small-caliber rifle.

According to federal documents, Mr. Chain began calling The Boston Globe immediately after the newspaper announced on 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, Mr. Chain threatened to shoot the newspaper’s employees in the head, the F.B.I. said. Three days later, in another call, Mr. Chain said: “You’re the enemy of the people.” Using profane language, he threatened to kill “every” Globe employee.

Mr. Trump has embraced the phrase “enemy of the people.” Media executives have decried the expression, believing it a dangerous assault on the First Amendment, warning that it could incite 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.

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
 I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. 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!

9:11 PM - Aug 30, 2018

The F.B.I. said there were about 12 threatening calls made to the paper.

“Why don’t you call Mueller, maybe he can help you out, buddy,” Mr. Chain said, referring to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Again using profane language, he threatened to shoot Globe employees in the head.

That threat prompted The Boston Globe to contract with a private security firm, and officers with the Boston Police Department were dispatched to the newspaper’s office.

A statement released by Jane Bowman, a Boston Globe spokeswoman, said, “We are grateful to the F.B.I., the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Boston Police, and local authorities in California for the work they did in protecting the Globe while threats were coming in, for investigating the source, and for making this arrest. We couldn’t have asked for a stronger response.” She added that, “while it was unsettling for many of our staffers to be threatened in such a way, nobody — really, nobody — let it get in the way of the important work of this institution.”


According to the F.B.I., Mr. 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.”

He incorrectly stated that The New York Times owned The Boston Globe. The Times sold the Boston newspaper in 2013.

Authorities said that Mr. Chain faces one felony count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce. He is slated to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday and then be transferred to Boston, where he was charged.

Follow Adam Goldman on Twitter: @adamgoldmanNYT.