‘Late Show’ Staffers Won’t Be Prosecuted for U.S. Capitol Incident

Nine staffers who work for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert won’t be prosecuted for a June incident at the U.S. Capitol that resulted in charges of unlawful entry.

“The United States Capitol Police was just informed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is declining to prosecute the case,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement on Monday. “We respect the decision that office has made.”

In a statement made to The Hill, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia added, “After a comprehensive review of all of the evidence and the relevant legal authority, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has determined that it cannot move forward with misdemeanor charges of unlawful entry against the nine individuals who were arrested on June 16, 2022 at the Longworth Office Building.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and The Late Show for comment.

The group was arrested on June 16 while filming a skit that included Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, performed by actor and writer Robert Smigel. According to The Late Show, Triumph was filming interviews for the show that were “authorized and pre-arranged through Congressional aides of the members interviewed” on both June 15 and June 16. The trouble arose when, “after leaving the members’ offices on their last interview of the day, the production team stayed to film stand-ups and other final comedy elements in the halls” at which point “they were detained by Capitol Police,” The Late Show said in a statement in June.

In its statement about the dropped charges, the Capitol Police notes that officers “arrested nine people for Unlawful Entry charges because members of the group had been told several times before they entered the Congressional buildings that they had to remain with a staff escort inside the buildings and they failed to do so.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia notes that the Congressional staffers who initially invited the television crew never asked them to leave, though the U.S. Capitol Police did warn the group that they needed an escort. “The Office would be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these invited guests were guilty of the crime of unlawful entry because their escort chose to leave them unattended,” the office’s statement continued. “We do not believe it is probable that the Office would be able to obtain and sustain convictions on these charges.”

The staffers were arrested in June at the Longworth House Office Building around 8:30 p.m., once the building was closed to visitors. The nine staffers for The Late Show who were arrested will no longer have to appear in a D.C. court for a hearing later this month.