The CNN Center in Atlanta (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

NOVI, Mich. — The man who federal authorities say threatened to kill CNN employees had declared in high school that he identified with Adolf Hitler and suggested “the Holocaust was exaggerated,” according to a former classmate.

That description of Brandon Griesemer’s behavior in high school emerged after the FBI accused him of placing menacing phone calls to CNN, describing the news organization as “fake news” and vowing to carry out a massacre at its Atlanta offices. The FBI also said in court documents that Griesemer made “disparaging remarks regarding Jewish individuals” during one call and, months before threatening CNN, called a Michigan mosque and “made derogatory comments relating to the mosque and Muslims.”

The FBI’s depiction of the threats to CNN comes as President Trump wages a battle against the news outlet that began during his campaign, regularly labeling it and others he does not like as “fake news.” CNN has been among Trump’s most-consistent targets in the news media. He has tweeted critically about the organization more than two dozen times since taking office a year ago, including on Tuesday morning, when he tweeted about “Fake News CNN” even as many news outlets had picked up on the FBI’s allegation that Griesemer used the phrase while threatening violence.

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