Encino Man Imprisoned For Threatening Paper Over Trump Editorials

LOS ANGELES, CA — An Encino man, who threatened to kill Boston Globe employees for criticizing President Donald Trump, was sentenced to four months in prison Wednesday.

Robert D. Chain, 69, admitted to making violent threats to the Boston Globe in 2018 because the paper urged other newspapers to run editorials denouncing what it called the Trump administration's "dirty war against the free press," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts. The sentence was part of a plea deal in which Chain pleaded guilty in Boston to seven counts of making threatening communications in interstate commerce. His case is one of a handful of high profile cases in which supporters of the president have threatened to kill his critics in the media and Congress.

Chain's case started in August of 2018 when the Boston Globe coordinated an editorial response by hundreds of newspapers to U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on the media. Immediately following the Globe's announcement, Chain began making threatening calls to the Boston Globe's newsroom, in which he echoed Trump's description of reporters as "the enemy of the people" and threatened to kill newspaper employees. In total, Chain made 14 phone calls to the Globe between Aug. 10 and 22, 2018.

On Aug. 16, 2018, the day the coordinated editorial response was published in the Boston Globe, Chain called the newsroom and threatened to shoot Globe employees in the head "later today, at 4 o'clock." As a result of that call, local law enforcement responded to the Globe's offices and maintained a presence outside the building to ensure the safety of the employees.

Along with the prison term, a federal judge in Boston ordered Chain to pay a $3,500 fine and $16,500 in restitution to the Globe, prosecutors said.

Chain is just the latest Trump supporter to be convicted for threatening the president's critics. In August Cesar Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison for mailing pipe bombs to members of the media and prominent Trump critics including former President Barack Obama and the actor Robert De Niro. In July of last year, Anthony Scott Lloyd, of San Pedro, was sentenced for three years of probation for threatening to kill Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, over comments she made about President Donald Trump.

Related:

• Encino Man Who Threatened To Kill Journalists Pleads Guilty
• Cesar Sayoc, Pro-Trump Mail Bomber, Gets 20 Years In Prison
• LA Trump Fan Sentenced For Threatening Rep. Maxine Waters
• LA Man Suspected Of Beating A Man Over Ironic Maga Hat

City News Service contributed to this report.