The U.S. Secret Service opened an investigation into comedian John Mulaney over allegedly made 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 investigated the comedian and former student of “SNL” for “inappropriate jokes about President Trump” after he made a joke about Roman dictator Julius Caesar, who was stabbed to death. by a group of senators in March.
The file obtained by the AP through the Freedom of Information Act, the request showed that the agency contacted NBC, but did not interview the comedian for his investigation, which found no wrongdoing.
“Another thing that happened during the government of Julius Caesar, he was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives and stabbed him to death. It would be an interesting thing if we brought it back now, ”said Mulaney to audience laughter.
The joke was told during Mulaney’s opening monologue during the “Saturday Night Live” broadcast on February 29, 2020.
The Secret Service recorded other observations during the monologue, including: “I asked my lawyer if I could make that joke, he said, let me call another lawyer, and that lawyer said yes. I don’t insist on politics, but I don’t like the Founding Fathers very much. … I hate it when people are like that, God never created such a large group of men as the Founding Fathers. Yes, the ’92 Bulls. … It is a perfect metaphor for the United States. When I was a boy, the United States was like Michael Jordan in 1992. Now, the United States is like Michael Jordan. “
Two days after Mulaney’s “SNL” monologue, officers contacted Thomas McCarthy, head of global security and senior vice president at NBC Universal, to express the agency’s desire to discuss the joke with the comedian’s lawyers.
The Secret Service file included a Breitbart report entitled “SNL: John Mulaney jokes that senators should stab Trump like Julius Caesar.” The Mulaney investigation was opened in March and closed in December, five days after the comedian revealed the investigation during an interview with Jimmy Kimmel.
The Secret Service file notes that Mulaney made no direct threats to Trump.
“The person who examined me understood very well that the joke had nothing to do with Donald Trump because it was an elliptical reference to him,” Mulaney told Kimmel. “I didn’t say anything about him. In terms of risk assessment, no one who has ever looked at me thought I registered above one. “
He added: “I said I have been making jokes about him since 2007, so I have been making fun of him for 13 years,” said Mulaney. “They said that if it was a joke, then I was cleared by the Secret Service.”
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LaPorta reported from Delray Beach, Florida.