Jimmy Kimmel just made history. On Thursday, the late-night host was as surprised as anyone else when his name was brought up during Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial, which had him feeling “very excited, I’m very proud, I’m exhilarated even,” as he told Thursday’s audience.
“From here on, we aren’t just following the Donald Trump drama in New York, we are part of it now,” said Kimmel of his unexpected name check. “We are part of the official record of The People vs. Donald Trump.”
Kimmel explained that Thursday’s biggest “surprise bombshell, at least for us, was when prosecutors entered into evidence a series of text messages about our show.”
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Kimmel explained that back in 2018, Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer, learned that his client was scheduled to appear on Kimmel and became nervous at the prospect. Though the interview went ahead as planned, Davidson began texting Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, while the show was airing.
“Which is historic,” Kimmel said. “I don’t want to brag, but it’s the first time a late-night talk show has been entered into evidence at the criminal trial for a president of the United States.
“Johnny Carson didn’t get that with Nixon. We got it!”
The appearance being referred to was one that took place in 2018, shortly after the State of the Union, which didn’t quite sit right with Kimmel. Though he said he was “pleased as punch for sure to be included today,” he thought lawyers missed a really great opportunity to showcase an even better interview he did with Daniels later that same year. (And where she was totally happy to play a game of “Which Orange Mushroom Looks Most Like Trump’s Junk?”)
Still, Kimmel thinks it’s only right that if his name is going to come up, he should be right there to correct any falsehoods or offer up more evidence.
“This is why I need to be in court,” Kimmel insisted. “I’m sick of being out of the court; I want to be in it. Why was I not asked to testify? It’s outrageous!”
