Lawmakers want answers after Stephen Colbert employees arrested on Capitol Hill for trespassing

Lawmakers will demand answers about the arrest of several employees of late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert on Capitol Hill on Thursday when Congress reconvenes next week, a prominent Republican told Fox News.

Days after Democrats on the House Jan. 6 Committee called Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga, to answer questions about a tour he took the day before the Capitol riots, several people , including CBS employees who work on Colbert’s late-night show, were arrested. for illegal entry to the complex.

On Thursday night, the individuals, including “Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog” puppeteer Robert Smigel, a frequent guest of Colbert’s, were not accredited to walk without an escort, a House Republican source told Fox News. Others arrested included Colbert writer Josh Comers and associate producer Allison Martinez.

The group was cleared into the complex by staff members of Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Massachusetts, and House Jan. 6 Committee member Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

ASHLI BABBITT’S WIDOWER SPEAKS

The group reportedly banged on the doors of several Republican offices, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, while allegedly filming a skit for Colbert’s “Late Show.” which would focus on the hearings on January 6.

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Illinois, the ranking member on the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over the operations of the House and Capitol Police, told “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Friday that will demand answers when Congress returns to session next week.

Davis noted that Colbert’s group visited the same buildings as those on Rep. Loudermilk’s January 5, 2021 tour, which was heavily vetted.

Earlier Thursday, the Colbert group was circling an area of ​​the Cannon House office building that was used for media staging during the January 6 Committee hearings, after, according to Members of Schiff’s team reportedly helped him.

Davis said they were then ejected by members of the press, who escorted them outside.

“I understand that a staff member offered them a way back to the House office buildings for [Auchincloss],” he added, as they traveled to Longworth, where Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s office is located.

JANUARY 6 LISTENING TO AN ‘AVE MARÍA’ DISTRACTION FROM ECONOMIC CRISES: SEXTON

Davis noted that the only people ultimately arrested by Capitol Police for trespassing through House buildings were Smigel and those who worked for Colbert, not those who accompanied Loudermilk.

A House aide also noted that the arrests came on the 50th anniversary of the infamous break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex, across from Washington.

In all, nine people, including Colbert’s senior producer Jake Plunkett, were arrested and spent a night in jail.

Davis was one of the lawmakers appointed by McCarthy to sit as minority members on the January 6 Committee, until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made the unprecedented decision to deny appointees to Jordan and Rep. James Banks, R-Indiana, free space to sit on the panel.

In response, McCarthy pulled out his entire list of appointees and characterized both the process and the committee as a sham. Later, Representatives Elizabeth Cheney, R-Wyoming, and Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, sat separately without McCarthy’s blessing.

Loudermilk, the Republican lawmaker criticized for giving the Jan. 5, 2021 tour, recently pushed back against claims that he was involved in or sanctioned any nefarious behavior.

House Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi responded that people’s behavior on the Loudermilk tour “increases[d] concerns about their activity and intent.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger recently wrote in a letter to Davis that his department “doesn’t[es] I do not consider any of the activities we observed to be suspicious.”

Loudermilk reacted on social media, writing that “the truth will always prevail” and calling the accusations made about him by Thompson and others “baseless”.

“What the Capitol Police said does not fit the narrative that the January 6 committee wants to present,” he told Fox News.