Ex-’Silicon Valley’ star T.J. Miller charged with making fake bomb threat ‘after drunken argument with woman on a train’
Former Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller has been charged with making a fake bomb threat after having an argument with a woman on a train headed for New York, the FBI said on Tuesday.
Miller, 36, who played egotistical tech entrepreneur Erlich Bachman on HBO’s tech startup satire, was travelling from Washington to New York on March 18 when he called 911 and reported that a female passenger “has a bomb in her bag”, the criminal complaint said.
Amtrak officials stopped the train when it got to Connecticut and told passengers to get off while bomb squad officers searched the train but found nothing.
Miller had earlier been removed from the train in New York because he was drunk, an Amtrak attendant told investigators. The actor had reportedly also been involved “in hostile exchanges with a woman who was sitting in a different row” in the first class car.
Investigators contacted Miller by phone in New York and asked if he suffered from mental illness, the complaint said.
Miller replied, “No, absolutely not. This is the first time I’ve ever made a call like this before. I am worried for everyone on that train. Someone has to check that lady out,” according to the complaint.
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The actor could face up to five years in prison if convicted, the FBI and the Connecticut US District Attorney’s office said in a statement. Representatives for Miller, who left the television show last year, did not immediately return a call for comment.
An indictment took place on March 18, and Miller made an initial appearance in US federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, on Tuesday where he was released on a US$100,000 bond, the FBI statement said.
The actor was charged with intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device on a train.
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Miller left Silicon Valley last year after four seasons for what were described at the time as creative differences with the show’s producers.
He recently appeared in Steven Spielberg’s movie Ready Player One and will next be seen in superhero movie Deadpool 2 due out in May.
