Would-Be ‘Saturday Night Live’ Bomber Arrested in Manhattan
Last week, New York City police arrested a man who allegedly made “terroristic threats” targeting the Saturday Night Live studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Right now, Michael Branham, 48, faces felony charges for allegedly threatening the Saturday Night Live building on Tuesday, April 2nd, in messages sent to a Connecticut college before NYPD would arrest him the following day. According to NBC News, two law enforcement officials deemed that Branham’s alleged threats weren’t credible, but he will appear in a New York court tomorrow in a second hearing on the two charges, one count of falsely reporting an incident and one threat of making a threat of mass harm.
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Though neither law enforcement officials nor the media have publicly revealed a possible motive behind Branham’s alleged threats, as NBC reported, his name and age do match a man against whom movie star Scarlett Johansson had previously requested a restraining order in California. The court denied Johansson’s request on a technicality.
Johansson, who is married to long-time SNL cast member and “Weekend Update” co-host Colin Jost, hasn’t yet commented on the arrest of Branham. The suspect pled not guilty to the felony counts he now faces during an arraignment hearing on Thursday, where his bail was set at $100,000.
Clearly, the brass at 30 Rockefeller Plaza concurred with law enforcement's opinion that Branham’s alleged threats were not credible, as the incident and subsequent arrest didn’t disrupt SNL’s famously fast-paced production schedule. NBCUniversal has similarly declined to comment on Branham’s arrest, and Jost and his co-host Michael Che understandably didn’t address the newsworthy threats in this past “Weekend Update.”
