MIDTOWN — The disgraced journalist who federal prosecutors said made bomb threats to Jewish groups across the country to get back at his ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and making hoax bomb threats in Manhattan Federal Court Tuesday.
Juan Thompson, 32, was charged with harassing at least a dozen Jewish Community Centers across the country in a months-long attempt to exact revenge on an ex-girlfriend who had dumped him.
Thompson, who was on the Anti-Defamation League's extremism watch list for fudging quotes in his coverage of Charleston church massacre began his crusade against his ex- in July 2016, the feds said.
He wrote an email to his girlfriend’s boss that falsely claimed she broke the law by hacking into one of his social media accounts. In October, an IP address linked to his house was used to falsely report that she possessed child pornography, according to prosecutors.
When authorities confronted Thompson about it a month later, he claimed that his email account had been hacked.
But the attacks only escalated. In January, Thompson, who previously worked for The Intercept, contacted a Manhattan museum devoted to Jewish history to say he'd planted "2 bombs in the History Museum set to go off Sunday."
A few days later, he emailed a bomb threat from an anonymous account to a Manhattan JCC that said, “Juan Thompson (THOMPSON’S BIRTHDAY) put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today. He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow.”
"As he admitted today in pleading guilty, Thompson made these threats as part of a cruel campaign to cyberstalk a victim with whom he previously had a relationship," Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said.
“Thompson’s threats not only inflicted emotional distress on his victim, but also harmed Jewish communities around the country."
He faces up to 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced Sept. 15 by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel.
His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
