Reporter destroyed by his own lies

Juan Thompson seemed to have it all.

The son of a heroin dealer, he boot-strapped his way out of a gritty St. Louis neighborhood to a Vassar College scholarship.

By 2015, he was an up-andcoming investigative reporter at The Intercept, busting out big exclusives for the online publication on some of the most important stories of the day.

He wrote of getting teargassed by cops while covering protests in Ferguson, Mo. — comparing the burning taste to “Chapstick . . . contaminated by Wasabi paste.”

He tracked down “Scott Roof,” a “cousin” of church shooter Dylann Roof, saying the relative told him that the mass-murdering white supremacist “kind of went over the edge when a girl he likes started dating a black guy.”

He landed a pretty, socially conscious girlfriend who worked for a Manhattan nonprofit.

But Thompson also was a habitual liar with a twisted taste for revenge, according to those who knew him.

His dark side finally caught up with him last year.

In January, Intercept editor Betsy Reed fired Thompson, explaining in a lengthy editor’s note how he had invented quotes and sources for at least four of his stories, including the Roof “exclusive.” Scott Roof didn’t even exist. Thompson created multiple e-mail addresses for his completely bogus sources — and even used an e-mail account to impersonate his own boss.

When his lengthy trail of lies finally caught up with him, The Intercept was forced to publish corrections in a number of cases and in one instance retracted an entire story.

After he was fired, Thompson claimed in letters to his former bosses that he had been receiving treatment for testicular cancer.

“I’ve been feverishly struggling and figuring out how to pay for my treatment,” he wrote.

Six months later, his girlfriend left him, according to the Manhattan federal complaint against Thompson charging him with making threats against Jewish institutions. One day after that he allegedly began a cyber-stalking campaign against her.