Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Man Arrested For Threatening To Kill CNN Employees; Mentioned Jews In His Calls

(JTA) — A Michigan man arrested after allegedly calling CNN 22 times and threatening to kill its employees also made disparaging statements about Jewish people and African-Americans.

Brandon Griesemer of Novi is accused of making the calls to CNN headquarters in Atlanta on Jan. 9-10. Four of them were recorded. He was tracked down through his phone number.

“I am on my way right now to gun the f—-in’ CNN cast down. F—- you,” the caller said in one call.

In a second call he whispered: “I’m coming for you CNN. I’m smarter than you. More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours.”

He also referred to “fake news.”  The threats were made public less than a week after President Trump tweeted his “Fake News Awards.”

The affidavit filed on Friday by the FBI did not specify what the caller said about Jews or name any Jewish individuals.

Griesemer was charged Friday in U.S. District Court with transmitting interstate communications with the intent to extort and threat to injure. He was released Friday on $10,000 bond.

On Monday, Griesemer’s father told the Washington Post that “this whole thing has been a mistake. He really didn’t mean any of it.”

The father added: “He didn’t know what he was saying, the seriousness of it. We’re not even gun owners or anything like that. We don’t have any, neither does he.”

In September, Griesemer called an employee at an Islamic center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and made derogatory comments about the mosque and Muslims, the affidavit said, according to CNN.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version