Stephen Colbert Relishes in Paul Manafort’s ‘All-You-Can-Steal Buffet’

Stephen Colbert opened his Late Show monologue Tuesday with a celebration of Robert Mueller’s birthday and the best gift possible for his investigation, Rick Gates’ damning testimony against Paul Manafort.

“Gates has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and on the stand, he made his former boss’ guilty perfectly clear,” Colbert said.

“And it gets better because Gates admitted on the stand that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Paul Manafort. He not only did crimes with Manafort, he did crimes at Manafort and on Manafort.”

Despite testifying against and embezzling from his “mentor,” Gates still called Manafort “probably one of the most politically brilliant strategists I’ve ever worked with.”

“Today we got even more details about Manafort’s all-you-can-steal buffet. Gates testified that Manafort hated paying taxes and jurors were shown an email in which Manafort, confronted with what he would have to pay in taxes, wrote ‘WTF,'” Colbert said. “WTF is short for ‘Why, that’s foolish.'”

Colbert then noted some of the other highlights from Gates’ testimony, including Manafort’s promises of an appointment in the Trump cabinet for lenders who loaned him money as well as the testimony’s emergence of adulterous “Secret Richard Gates.”

Colbert wasn’t the only late-night host to tackle the Manafort trial: The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah said of Gates’ testimony, “He knows where the bodies are buried, and yesterday he dug them up.”