New details emerged late on Friday evening about the staffers who work for CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” that were arrested for allegedly illegally entering an office building for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Nine individuals were arrested on Thursday night for entering the Longworth House Office Building, which was closed to the public at that point, after they previously had been escorted out of another building for trying to conduct interviews related to the January 6 committee hearings.
The staffers “tried weeks ago to get credentials for the 1/6 committee hearings,” Fox News correspondent Chad Pergram tweeted. “The House Radio/TV Gallery rejected the request from the Colbert team out of hand because they are not ‘news.’”
Pergram reported that the team was allowed in the office building if they were invited, which they supposedly were.
“The Colbert team conducted interviews earlier in the day Thursday with 1/6 committee members Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Stephanie Murphy (D-FL),” Pergram tweeted. “They also interviewed. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) who is not a member of the committee.”
The group then left the House office buildings but were let back in by an aide to Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) because the aide reportedly believed that they had additional work to do.
“The group apparently then roamed the House office buildings unattended for hours,” Pergram said. “They were arrested near the office of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) around 8:30 pm et and charged with unlawful entry. They were in jail for part of the night before being released Friday.”
The nine individuals who were allegedly arrested included Jake Plunkett, Allison Martinez, Tyrone Dean, Stephen Romond, Nicoletta Green, Brendan Hurley, Robert Smigel, Josh Comers, and David Feldman.
“Robert Smigel is known for being the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog,” Pergram noted. “He also produced short cartoons for Saturday Night Live’s ‘TV Funhouse.’”
USCP said in a statement:
On June 16, 2022, at approximately 8:30 p.m., U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) received a call for a disturbance in the Longworth House Office Building. Responding officers observed seven individuals, unescorted and without Congressional ID, in a sixth-floor hallway.
The building was closed to visitors, and these individuals were determined to be a part of a group that had been directed by the USCP to leave the building earlier in the day. They were charged with Unlawful Entry. This is an active criminal investigation, and may result in additional criminal charges after consultation with the U.S. Attorney.
A spokesperson for CBS said that the staffers were on site to do a comedy segment for Colbert’s show and claimed that the interviews were “pre-arranged.”
“On Wednesday, June 15 and Thursday, June 16, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was on-site at the Capitol with a production team to record interviews for a comedy segment on behalf of ‘The Late Show.’ Their interviews at the Capitol were authorized and pre-arranged through Congressional aides of the members interviewed,” the spokesperson said. “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 when they were detained by Capitol Police.”
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