The FBI arrested and charged a Massachusetts woman with allegedly calling in a hoax bomb threat to Boston Children’s Hospital in August, right after right-wing influencers launched a smear campaign against the hospital for providing gender-affirming care to children and adolescents.
And it appears she likes Donald Trump—a lot.
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Catherine Leavy, 37, was arrested Thursday at her home in Westfield, nearly two hours away from Boston, and charged with willfully making a false bomb threat. On August 30, Leavy allegedly called the hospital and said: “There is a bomb on the way to the hospital. You better evacuate everybody, you sickos.”
If convicted, Leavy could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of a quarter of a million dollars.
While not much is currently known about Leavy, a woman with the same name in Westfield, Massachusetts, donated to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee nearly 150 times over the course of the summer and fall of 2020, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The donations all came from the same Westfield address, and many list the occupation as “retired” while 17 provide the occupation as a self-employed landscaper. The donations were all for $150 or less, but the combined total from May to October 2020 was several thousand dollars.
During that five-month period, a woman with the same name at the Westfield address donated more than $4,300 to the Make America Great Again PAC, more than $2,400 to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, and nearly $900 more to the Republican National Committee.
There are also dozens more donations made through Winred, the GOP’s fundraising platform; most of these donations are earmarked for committees aligned with the Trump campaign, though there are also several small-dollar donations to Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan and New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is currently running for governor.
The threat came after right-wing influencers including Libs of TikTok, otherwise known as Brooklyn real estate agent Chaya Raichik, accused doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Gender Multispeciality Service program of performing hysterectomies on children—a lie which has been fully embraced by the transphobic far-right. (Raichik told the Washington Post after the bomb threat that she “100 % condemn[s] any acts/threats of violence.”)
Similar harassment campaigns have been targeted against children’s hospitals in Washington D.C, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh. In addition to bomb threats, far-right extremists have also threatened to “execute” doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“We are relieved no bomb was found and that employees and patients are safe,” Boston Children’s Hospital said in a statement after the bomb threat. “We remain vigilant in our efforts to battle the spread of false information about the hospital and our caregivers. We are committed to ensuring the hospital is a safe and secure place for all who work here and come here.”
