It seems Jon Stewart wasn’t the only late night host whose name was in the files.

 By 

Amanda Yeo

Amanda Yeo

Assistant Editor

Amanda Yeo is an Assistant Editor at Mashable, covering entertainment, culture, tech, science, and social good. Based in Australia, she writes about everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets.

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 on February 5, 2026

It looks as though Jon Stewart wasn’t the only late night host mentioned in the Epstein files. The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert has not also addressed being name-dropped in the most recently released batch of files, which contain information on the investigation into convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Fortunately, like Stewart, Colbert wasn’t actually involved in Epstein’s activities, and was only mentioned in emails. Specifically, one of Epstein’s associates recommended he watch Colbert’s explanation of Super PACs from his former show The Colbert Report.

“Well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” quipped Colbert. “Just look at our new Times Square billboard: ‘The Late Show: It’s really funny — think Jeffrey will enjoy watching!'”

Colbert also noted a few other names in the Epstein files which he considers particularly important as a giant Tolkien nerd.

“These files contain the names of folks even more important to me than me, because Epstein also name-dropped Bilbo Baggins, and at one point he compared himself to Gandalf,” said Colbert. “All right, that is disgusting. In the immortal words of Gandalf the Grey, ‘Eat shit you dead pervert.’ It sounds prettier in Elvish.”

Amanda Yeo is an Assistant Editor at Mashable, covering entertainment, culture, tech, science, and social good. Based in Australia, she writes about everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets.

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