By Javier Panzar
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — A 68-year-old Encino, Calif., man was arrested and charged Thursday with threatening to shoot employees at the Boston Globe after the newspaper’s editorial board pushed back against President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the press.
Robert D. Chain was charged with one count of making threatening communications and will appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts.
Chain began making phone calls threatening to travel to the Globe’s offices and shoot employees shortly after the paper announced Aug. 10 that it was launching a coordinated campaign with other newspapers to publish editorials calling on Trump to end his rhetoric about the news media, prosecutors said.
Chain made 14 threatening calls, both from his home phone and his wife’s cellphone, to the newspaper between Aug. 10 and Aug. 22, according to prosecutors. He called the Globe “the enemy of the people” —repeating one of Trump’s most-used phrases for the media —and threatened to kill newspaper employees, prosecutors said.
In one profanity laced call made Aug. 13, Chain allegedly said, “We are going to shoot you … in the head, you Boston Globe. … Shoot every … one of you,” according to court documents.
On the day the editorials ran in newspapers across the country, Chain called the Globe newsroom and threatened to shoot Globe employees in the head “later today, at 4 o’clock,” prosecutors said.
Court documents indicated Chain was recorded on Aug. 16 saying: “You’re the enemy of the people, and we’re going to kill every … one of you. Hey, why don’t you call the F? Why don’t you call Mueller? Maybe he can help you out, buddy.”
Local law enforcement responded to the Globe’s offices that day and maintained a presence outside the building.
Chain owns several firearms and bought a new 9 mm carbine rifle in May 2018, according to documents in the case.
“Everyone has a right to express their opinion, but threatening to kill people takes it over the line and will not be tolerated,” Harold H. Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston, said in a news release Thursday. “Today’s arrest of Robert Chain should serve a warning to others, that making threats is not a prank, it’s a federal crime. All threats are taken seriously, as we never know if the subject behind the threat intends to follow through with their actions. Whether potentially hoax or not, each and every threat will be aggressively run to ground.”
The charge of making threatening communications in interstate commerce has a sentence of up to five years, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
