BOSTON | Robert Chain, 68, upset about The Boston Globe’s coordinated editorial response to President Donald Trump’s criticism of the news media was arrested Thursday for threatening to kill the Globe journalists, whom he called the “enemy of the people,” federal prosecutors said.
Chain’s threatening phone calls to the Globe’s newsroom started immediately after the Globe appealed to newspapers across the country to condemn what it called a “dirty war against the free press,” prosecutors said.
Chain, of Encino, Calif., told a Globe newsroom staffer that he was going to shoot employees in the head at 4 p.m., according to court documents. That threat prompted a police response and increased security at the newspaper’s offices.
After the editorials ran, Chain said he would continue threatening the Globe, The New York Times and “other fake news” as long as they continue their “treasonous and seditious acts” in attacking Trump, authorities said.
It is still unknown if Chain has an attorney. A person listed as a relative of Chain didn’t immediately return a phone message.
Chain is expected to appear in Los Angeles’ federal court Thursday and be transferred to Boston at a later date, according to prosecutors. He’s charged with making threatening communications in interstate commerce, which calls for up to five years in prison.
