Details of the Secret Service's probe into John Mulaney's "inappropriate jokes about President [Donald] Trump" have been revealed. The comedian recently revealed that he was under investigation for a joke in which he described how Roman dictator Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of senators, and now case records have been made public by The Associated Press.
According to the documents, the Secret Service contacted NBC's global chief security officer and senior vice president, Thomas McCarthy, explaining that it wanted to discuss the matter with Mulaney's attorneys. The comedian had cracked the jokes two days prior, on Feb. 29, 2020, during his opening monologue on "Saturday Night Live."
"Another thing that happened under Julius Caesar, he was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives, and they stabbed him to death. That would be an interesting thing if we brought that back now," Mulaney said, according to the files.
The Secret Service was also looking into other political remarks Mulaney had made during the monologue.
"I asked my lawyer if I could make that joke. He said, 'Let me call another lawyer,' and that lawyer said 'yes,'" Mulaney said, per the documents. "I don't dwell on politics, but I dislike the Founding Fathers immensely. ... I hate when people are like, 'God has never created such a great group of men than the Founding Fathers.' Yeah, the '92 Bulls. ... That's 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 now."
A case was opened in March and closed in December after the Secret Service determined there was no wrongdoing. Five days prior, Mulaney spoke of the investigation in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel.
''I guess they opened a file on me because of the joke, and I have to say, am I stoked there's a file open on me? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it in the moment? Not so much,'' Mulaney said.
''But the person vetting me ... was very understanding that the joke had nothing to do with Donald Trump. It was an elliptical reference to him. I didn't say anything about him.''
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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