On his own talk show, Stephen Colbert just addressed the fact that his name was mentioned in the latest batch of Epstein files.
During this Wednesday’s broadcast, the late-night host began his monologue by saying, “Now, here’s the curious thing. I got a little curious and did a little searching to see if I was in the files, and unfortunately I am.”
Colbert continued by mentioning the specific email in which his name appears, which was originally sent to Lesley Groff, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive assistant.
In Colbert’s explanation, he said, “One of Epstein’s associates was a fan of my old show, The Colbert Report, particularly of my explanation of massive anonymous campaign coffers known as Super PACs. In an email asking Epstein to donate to a candidate, that person wrote, ‘Nobody explains it better than Stephen Colbert – it’s really funny – think Jeffrey will enjoy watching!'” Below is the full email where Colbert’s name appears:
Colbert made several comments and jokes about being mentioned, first saying, “Well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Just look at our new Times Square billboard!” A fake promotional graphic for The Late Show then popped up on screen with the tagline, “It’s really funny – think Jeffrey will enjoy watching!”
Colbert kept going, saying, “But these files contain the names of folks even more important to me than me, because Jeffrey also name-dropped Bilbo Baggins.” Now, if you don’t know, Bilbo is a character from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, of which Stephen is a massive fan. In fact, he even had a brief cameo in 2013’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, as shown below.
Here’s that entire email where Bilbo Baggins was mentioned by Jeffrey Epstein, in case you’re curious:
But that’s not all. In a separate email, Epstein compared himself to Gandalf. The audience literally gasped and groaned when Colbert revealed this, and then he said, “All right! That is disgusting! In the immortal words of Gandalf the Grey, ‘Eat shit, you dead pervert.'”
The audience cheered, Colbert smiled, and then he said, “It sounds prettier in Elvish.”
So, there you have it. That’s why Colbert was mentioned in the files, straight from the mouth of Stephen Colbert himself.