Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated Press
T. J. Miller, the comedian and former star of the HBO series “Silicon Valley,” was arrested Monday night at La Guardia Airport and charged by federal law enforcement authorities with calling in a false bomb threat from an Amtrak train, the United States attorney’s office in Connecticut said Tuesday.
The charge, which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence, stems from March 18, when the authorities said Mr. Miller alerted a 911 dispatcher in New Jersey that a female passenger was hiding a bomb in her bag on Amtrak Train 2256, which he said he was on, and which was headed north from Washington. He described the female passenger as having brown hair and a scarf.
Law enforcement alerted Amtrak, disrupting service, but by the time the train was stopped and searched, it was already in Westport, Conn. Passengers were ordered to evacuate while bomb squads searched the train and found no evidence of any explosive materials.
It turned out that Mr. Miller had been on a different train — Amtrak Train 2258 — which pulled into Westport soon after. According to the complaint, when investigators again contacted Mr. Miller, who was then in New York, he described the woman as having red hair, rather than brown, and said she had a black carry-on suitcase with a handle. Mr. Miller said she seemed eager to get off the train while leaving her bag aboard.
The officer who spoke to Mr. Miller said he was slurring his words, according to the release. When asked if he had consumed any alcohol, investigators said Mr. Miller told them he had had “one glass of red wine.” They also said he told them: “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.”
The train Mr. Miller had been aboard was not found to contain any explosives, either. An attendant on the train who was working in the first-class cabin where Mr. Miller was sitting told investigators that Mr. Miller “appeared intoxicated upon boarding in Washington,” according to a statement, and that after consuming more drinks after boarding, he was removed in New York. The attendant also said that Mr. Miller was observed to be “involved in hostile exchanges” with a woman sitting in first class.
Investigators spoke to that woman and found that she did not have a bag like the one Mr. Miller described and that she would have mostly been out of his view, given the positioning of their seats.
Mr. Miller appeared on Tuesday in a district court in New Haven and was released on $100,000 bond. His representatives did not respond to a request for comment, but Mr. Miller’s Twitter account did promote a weekend of his comedy shows at the Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia.
Mr. Miller’s exit from “Silicon Valley” after four seasons was acrimonious, as he trashed the show in interviews and reports emerged that he was a disruptive presence on the set. His other projects have included a 2017 stand-up special on Netflix and appearances in movies like “Deadpool,” which has a sequel scheduled for release in May.
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