The U.S. Secret Service opened an investigation into comedian John Mulaney over jokes about President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” last year, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Mulaney, 38, revealed last month that the Secret Service had investigated the “SNL” comedian and student for “inappropriate jokes about President Trump” after making a joke about Roman dictator Julius Caesar, who he was stabbed by a group of senators on the Ides of March.
The file obtained by the AP through the Freedom of Information Act application, it was shown that the office contacted NBC, but did not interview the comedian for his investigation, which found no fault .
“Another thing that happened under Julius Caesar, he was such a powerful maniac that all the senators took knives and stabbed him to death. It would be an interesting thing if we got him back now,” Mulaney said amid laughter from the audience.
The joke was told during Mulaney’s inaugural monologue during the “Saturday Night Live” show on February 29, 2020.
The Secret Service noted other remarks during the monologue, including, “I asked my lawyer if I could make this joke, he said, let me call another lawyer and that lawyer said yes. I don’t engage in the politics, but I don’t really like the founding fathers …. I hate when people are like that, God has never created a group of men as big as the founding fathers … “It’s a perfect metaphor for the United States. When I was a kid, the United States was like Michael Jordan in 1992. Now in the United States, like Michael Jordan now.”
Two days after Mulaney’s “SNL” monologue, police contacted Thomas McCarthy, NBC Universal’s chief security officer and senior vice president, to express the agency’s desire to discuss the joke with comic book lawyers.
The Secret Service’s file included a Breitbart report entitled, “SNL: John Mulaney Jokes That Senators Should Stab Trump Like Julius Caesar.” The investigation into Mulaney opened in March and closed in December, five days after the comic revealed the investigation during an interview with Jimmy Kimmel..
The Secret Service file notes that Mulaney did not make any direct threats against Trump.
“The person reviewing me was very understanding that the joke had nothing to do with Donald Trump because it was an elliptical reference for him,” Mulaney told Kimmel. “I did not say anything about him. As for the risk assessment, no one who has looked at me ever thought I had registered above one.
He added, “I said I was joking about him since 2007, so I make fun of him for 13 years,” Mulaney said. “They said if it was a joke, the Secret Service would clarify it for me.”
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LaPorta reported from Delray Beach, Florida.