Colbert show production team detained by Capitol Police, CBS confirms

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — (Image credit: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)

A production team for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was detained by U.S. Capitol Police in a congressional office building on Thursday and charged with unlawful entry, CBS and the USCP said Friday.

The production team reportedly entered the building to conduct pre-arranged interviews between several House members and the puppet character Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Then, after finishing the last interview, "the production team stayed to film stand-ups and other final comedy elements in the halls when they were detained by Capitol Police," explained Renata Luczak, CBS's vice president of entertainment communications. Fox News reports that the team left the building earlier Thursday after police discovered they did not have the proper credentials to access the Jan. 6 committee hearings, but were later "let back in" by an aide to Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.).

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The USCP said in a statement that at around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, they received a call about "a disturbance in the Longworth House Office Building" and discovered "seven individuals, unescorted and without congressional ID, in a sixth-floor hallway." That building, the USCP explained, "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."

Capitol Police also warned that the investigation could lead to "additional criminal charges."

Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.