Comedian Kathy Griffin has reportedly retained a criminal lawyer and is the focus of an inquiry by the U.S. Secret Service following a disastrous stunt in which she held up a prop resembling the bloody severed head of Donald Trump.
Griffin has also reportedly received death threats in the wake of the incident.
Griffin said today that Trump is “personally trying to ruin my life.”
Griffin lost her job with CNN over the stunt, as we reported previously. She has apologized for the incident, and said today that she stands by her apology, with TMZ.com reporting that Griffin said she wishes she had used a blowup doll instead, with less ketchup.
The comedian appeared today at a news conference with attorney Lisa Bloom, where the fallout from the incident was detailed.
Said Griffin: “If you don’t stand up, you get run over. What’s happening to me has never happened in this great country. A sitting president of the U.S. … is personally trying to ruin my life forever.”
CNN quotes Bloom saying: “As a result of the first family bullying her, she has been vilified, getting death threats, fired from multiple jobs and had multiple events canceled.”
Bloom, who has a number of high-profile clients, has been in the news recently for her work with former Fox News contributor Wendy Walsh, who has accused Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment.
TMZ.com reported earlier this week that the Secret Service was investigating the controversial photo shoot, noting that the probe is standard procedure in cases such as this even when it is apparent that the incident poses no direct threat to the president.
The Washington Post reports that Griffin says the photo shoot was inspired by Trump’s comments back in 2015 about Megyn Kelly, in which Trump famously said Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever.”
“The 56-year-old comedian said those statements prompted her to pose with the Trump severed head, which was a mask mounted on a Styrofoam wig mold,” The Post reports. “Griffin and her attorneys appeared at a free-wheeling news conference Friday morning in which Griffin cried and again apologized for the shoot. Griffin grew more combative as the news conference went on and said she had nothing to say to Trump’s wife, Melania, or his young son, Barron.”
The Post reports that Griffin is being represented by criminal attorney Dmitry Gorin in the Secret Service investigation. The report adds that Gorin “said the shoot was parody and the comedian did nothing wrong. He said Griffin is cooperating with the agency.”
Well she had to know it would draw attention and heat, but I’m sure she didn’t think about all the possible outcomes. 45 strikes me as a vindictive guy and there’s a real chance he will use his power to cause trouble for her. Don’t bet what you’re not willing to lose, as the old saying goes. Anyway it was certainly ill-advised, and while we all make mistakes, this one is going to haunt her, I’m afraid.
I’m still fully in support of her right to participate in art like this, but I’m also fully in support of there being consequences for public speech of this kind (not legal ones, but social condemnation or other measures, notably NOT including death threats of course, those are wrong).
I am a big fan of Griffin, but she needs to go away for a bit and let things cool down. Her press conference today made no sense and she is starting to sound like Hillary trying to blame everyone one in the world except herself and the artist. The Secret Service is legally obligated to check out these situations. It is not a Trump attack.
The Revolutionary War had their heroes … well, in this current revolt and future revolution (so to speak),
she will be named as an early hero … in this era … the comics are the true leaders in this all important movement to get rid of our own version of a petty dictator … Noriega just passed away, maybe Trump can take over Panama and be their fearless leader … Viva Trump en Panama !
Long Live the Trumpire … Somewhere Else ..
While I’m not a Trump fan neither do I find Griffin’s sense of humor even remotely humorous. This is just another clear cut example of how people need to understand that their actions have consequences.