Charges Dropped For Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' Staffers After Capitol Arrest

Last month, several employees who worked for "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" were arrested for unlawful entry to the U.S. Capitol building.

On Monday night, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the nine staffers who had been detained and arrested will not be prosecuted, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Although nine staffers in total were detained and arrested with charges on unlawful entry into the U.S. Capitol building last month, none of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" employees will be prosecuted.

The Attorney’s Office stated that it "could not move forward with misdemeanor charges of unlawful entry" in a newly released statement that can be read in full below.

“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 U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement released on Monday.

The U.S. Capitol Police added a separate statement, saying that the Attorney’s Office failed to prosecute the case.

“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 statement read. They added, "We respect the decision that office has made.”

On June 16, nine staffers with "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" were arrested at the Longworth House Office Building around 8:30, after visiting hours had closed for the day.

Although the identities of all nine staffers have not been released, it was reported that the actor and writer Robert Smigel, the talent behind the iconic Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, was among them.

According to The Late Show, Triumph had been filming interviews for the show that had been “authorized and pre-arranged through Congressional aides of the members interviewed” on both June 15 and June 16, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

The show continued to state that the group ran into trouble “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 statement released by the Capitol Police goes on to say that they had “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.”

As it stands, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia declined to prosecute because the Congressional staffers who invited the nine staffers to the building never actually asked them to leave.

However, the U.S. Capitol Police insisted that the group knew that they needed an escort to remain inside the building.

“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 said. “We do not believe it is probable that the Office would be able to obtain and sustain convictions on these charges.”

Since the Attorney’s Office has declined to prosecute, the nine staffers with "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will not have to appear in a D.C court for a hearing, which had been scheduled for later this month.