Man Threatened to Shoot Globe Employees Over Anti-Trump Editorials: Cops

California man was arrested Thursday
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2018 2:51 PM CDT
Man Charged With Threatening 'Enemy of the People' Globe
A worker cleans the front window of the Boston Globe headquarters in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Monday July 20, 2009.   (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A California man is accused of making violent threats against Boston Globe employees because of the newspaper's campaign to get anti-Trump editorials published across the nation. Robert D. Chain, 68, was arrested Thursday on a count making threatening communications in interstate commerce, ABC News reports. Chain allegedly made threatening phone calls to the Globe in which he referred to the paper's employees as the "enemy of the people," echoing President Trump's own words about the media. In 14 phone calls he allegedly made between Aug. 10 and Aug. 22, Chain allegedly threatened to shoot employees in the head and said he had planned an attack on the paper for Aug. 16 at 4pm.

In an alleged threat received Aug. 22, Chain, who does own firearms, allegedly said he would continue his campaign against the newspaper "as long as you keep attacking the President, the duly elected President of the United States, in the continuation of your treasonous and seditious acts," according to the criminal complaint. "Everyone has a right to express their opinion, but threatening to kill people takes it over the line and will not be tolerated," an FBI special agent 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." Chain was expected in court in LA Thursday but will be transferred to Boston in the future, CBS Boston reports. (More Boston Globe stories.)

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