Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening to Bomb 'Saturday Night Live' Venue in N.Y.C.
A man has been arrested following a bomb threat in New York City, with outlets reporting that the target was the Saturday Night Live studios.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed to PEOPLE that they received a report of a bomb threat within the Midtown North Precinct at approximately 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday, April 1. They added that Michael Branham of Glen Head, N.Y., has since been arrested as a result of the investigation.
Public court records show that Branham, 48, was arrested on Wednesday, April 2, on charges of making a threat of mass harm and falsely reporting an incident. Court records show that he pleaded not guilty to both charges. His bail is set at $100,000.
SNL did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Saturday, April 5.
According to NBC News, Branham allegedly communicated a threat to the SNL studios at 30 Rockefeller Center to a college in Connecticut, which subsequently reported the threat to authorities. The outlet added that the threat was not deemed credible.
NBC also reported that Branham's name matches that of a person whom actress Scarlett Johansson has sought a restraining order against in California, though the outlet said the order was denied on a technicality. Johansson, 40, is married to Colin Jost, an SNL castmember and head writer.
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The New York Post reported that Branham's attorney, Jamie Niskanen-Singer, requested the court lower his client's bail, arguing that Branham has been scammed in the past by people posing as Johansson online and that these scammers could actually be the ones behind the threats.
'He has given out information. He may have been hacked, your honor. It's very possible here that there is someone that is setting him up,' Niskanen-Singer said, per the outlet.
PEOPLE reached out to Branham's attorney, representatives for Johansson and NBC on April 5, but did not receive an immediate response.
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