Seth Meyers was blown away by the seriousness of the charges revealed against Donald Trump at the former president’s arraignment Tuesday in Manhattan.
“When we were at first speculating about this case, I think most people imagined it would be one or two charges of maybe falsifying business records or campaign finance violations,” the “Late Night” host said Tuesday night.
“It was then reported that Trump would face 34 counts, but even that was unclear because that can mean, say, one felony and 33 misdemeanors, which might actually come off as a fairly weak case. But we found out today that the charges were way more serious than that.”
After surrendering himself to the Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The former president is accused of falsifying business records to conceal $130,000 in hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 election to prevent her from going public about an alleged affair they had in 2006.
“Not just 34 charges, 34 felonies! Holy shit!” Meyers exclaimed after airing reporting from the arraignment. “In order to raise the $130,000 he used to pay off Stormy Daniels, did he also rob a bank in a Halloween mask?”
Watch below on “Late Night.”