The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia announced Monday that staff members of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will not be prosecuted for twice unlawfully entering a Capitol office building in June and recording video after hours without permission. The staff will no longer need to show up at a hearing today at the D.C. superior court. The U.S. attorney’s office indicated that it does not believe it can “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these invited guests were guilty of the crime of unlawful entry” — a misdemeanor — “because their escort chose to leave them unattended.”
Although the U.S. Capitol Police say they respect the decision reached by the attorney’s office, on Tuesday, Chief Thomas Manger sent a letter to Representatives Rodney Davis (R., Ill.,) and Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) in which he wrote, “It is unfortunate that despite all of the evidence the Department presented, including that the group or its leader had been told several times that they could not be in the buildings without an escort, that the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to prosecute any members of the group for Unlawful Entry.”
The Capitol Police arrested the group on June 16. The talk-show staff members were invited by congressional staffers to enter the Longworth House Office Building. Nine people entered the building — seven were members of Colbert’s staff, and the two others were there to provide security. According to police, the staffers also allegedly behaved in a “disruptive, loud,” and “theatrical” way close to the office of Representative Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.). They were there to film a segment for the show with “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog,” a hand-puppet character created by comedian Robert Smigel. The staff were also allegedly pretending to hide notes under the congressmen’s doors, inviting them to a cocaine orgy. According to the Capitol Police chief, the staffers lied to authorities, telling them they were “credentialed staff.”
Compare the treatment of Colbert’s team to that of some of the Trump supporters who entered the Capitol on January 6 and simply walked around and took pictures, many of whom were charged with misdemeanors such as unlawful entry. Some walked calmly into the Capitol while police let them in and held the door for them. The Justice Department has arrested more than 855 people for various crimes on January 6, from trespassing on restricted grounds to seditious conspiracy. One of them, Matthew Martin of New Mexico, was charged with unlawful entry and engaging in disorderly conduct despite the fact that he simply walked around the Capitol building; he was acquitted by a judge in April. The same judge acquitted Couy Griffin on one of two charges for entering restricted Capitol grounds and staying there for hours. But the vast majority of the 325 defendants who have pleaded guilty to crimes were charged with misdemeanors — the same category of crime that Colbert’s staffers were charged with.
Colbert says the fact that his staffers were invited into the Longworth House Office Building by congressional staffers and did not attempt to disrupt the workings of Congress differentiates them from those who entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021. But Colbert’s staffers did not obey the rules they were given once inside, and their antics could have disrupted the congressmen working in their offices. For Colbert’s staffers not to be charged with unlawful entry, when Trump supporters who merely walked into the Capitol and took pictures were so charged, raises questions. Does holding certain political views insulate some people, while holding others does not? I don’t know, but it’s reasonable to wonder.