The Intercept, an online left-wing news outlet founded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar and edited by, among others, Glenn Greenwald, has announced the firing of reporter Juan Thompson (pictured) for a series of known fabrications reminiscent of Stephen Glass, The New Republic reporter fired in 1998 for serial fabrications. According to the site’s editor-in-chief Betsy Reed, Thompson’s sins include both invented people and quotes.

The Intercept’s note on the firing informs readers:

An investigation into Thompson’s reporting turned up three instances in which quotes were attributed to people who said they had not been interviewed. In other instances, quotes were attributed to individuals we could not reach, who could not remember speaking with him, or whose identities could not be confirmed. In his reporting Thompson also used quotes that we cannot verify from unnamed people whom he claimed to have encountered at public events. Thompson went to great lengths to deceive his editors, creating an email account to impersonate a source and lying about his reporting methods.

Fully retracted is a story about Scott Roof, cousin of Dylann Roof, the racist terrorist who murdered nine black churchgoers last year in South Carolina. The story quotes the cousin as ascribing a motive to Dylann Roof involving a girl he liked dating a black man.

Scott Roof does not appear to exist.

Four stories have been corrected, one attacking Donald Trump and his supporters.

The Trump correction in part reads:

An earlier version of this story included quotes attributed to a woman and her husband, described as Trump supporters. The woman was identified by her first name, Kathy, while the man was identified only as her husband. The reporter had provided a real individual’s full name and identity to editors but said the source did not want it to be used. When contacted, this individual said she did not support Trump, had not attended his rally, and had never spoken to our reporter. The relevant section, which has been removed, read: “‘They need to be monitored and surveilled,’ said the woman, who was only willing to be identified as Kathy from Buckhall, Virginia. ‘We don’t need an influx of this in America. We’ve got to stop it.’ Her husband noted, ‘That’s what we like about Trump, he’s not afraid of the backlash. He tells the truth.’”

All five of the redacted/corrected stories involve race.

Thompson responded to Gawker with a letter he claims to have sent to Reed (the letter is undated). The fired reporter says that he is undergoing cancer treatments and is currently unable to access his reporter notebooks. In the lengthy letter, he does appear to leave the door open for the possibility that his quotes were indeed fabricated:

Moreover, after finally looking over the notes sent to me, I must say this: I had a habit of writing drafts of stories, placing the names of ppl I wanted to get quotes from in there, and then going to fetch the quotes.

Thompson’s verified Twitter feed is a swamp of fevered, racialist leftism.

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Radiation treatment be damned. I had to tweet about Trump’s loss. Fuck that fascist. #IowaCaucus — Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 2, 2016

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.@realDonaldTrump in a VERY short concession speech sounds like he’s been crying tonight. Those white tears are wonderful. #IowaCaucus — Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 2, 2016

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True words from Obama: you want to change the politics, change the system. He’s a furtive, weak Marxist. #SOTU — Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) January 13, 2016

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