An Encino man was sentenced Wednesday to four months in prison for threatening to kill employees at the Boston Globe in retaliation for its role coordinating an editorial response by hundreds of newspapers to U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on the media.
Robert D. Chain, 69, pleaded guilty in May to making violent threats to the Boston Globe after the paper in August 2018 urged other newspapers to run editorials denouncing what it called a "dirty war against the free press," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts.
Immediately following the Globe's announcement, Chain began making threatening calls to the Boston Globe's newsroom, in which he referred to the Globe 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.
