WASHINGTON –
U.S. Capitol police said Friday that officers arrested seven unauthorized people in a Congressional office building Thursday night and charged them with illegal entry.
People identified themselves as affiliated with CBS’s “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Another person familiar with the matter provided the AP with a list of nine people who had been arrested by Capitol police. They include several producers, along with Robert Smigel, the voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
The two people who spoke to the AP were unable to discuss the details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The incident on Thursday night followed the third public hearing of the House panel investigating the Capitol Uprising of January 6, 2021.
Capitol police said they received a call about a disturbance in the Longworth House office building around 8:30 p.m. “Responding officers observed seven people, unaccompanied and without a congressional ID, in a hallway on the sixth floor,” the agency said in a statement. “The building was closed to visitors and these people were determined to be part of a group that had been led by the USCP to leave the building early in the day.”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS said the production team was at the Capitol on Wednesday and Thursday to record a comedy segment with Triumph.
“His interviews at the Capitol were previously authorized and arranged through congressional aides of the members interviewed,” the network said. “After leaving the members’ offices in their last interview of the day, the production team stayed to film stand-ups and other final comedy elements in theaters when they were arrested by Capitol police.”
The USCP statement said the case remains “an active criminal investigation and could lead to additional criminal charges.” Capitol police, moving away from the usual practice, refused to provide the names of the people who were arrested.