Donald Trump Jr.’s Choice of a Lawyer Raises Eyebrows on Late Night

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Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. What do you think of it? What else are you interested in? Let us know: thearts@nytimes.com.

Like the Corleones, but All Fredo

The story of the moment is Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting last year with a Russian lawyer who, he was told, had information that could damage Hillary Clinton. He agreed to the meeting in an email exchange that’s now been made public.

He’s retained a lawyer of his own. And the president’s son is not this lawyer’s first colorful defendant, as Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel explained on Tuesday.

“Donald Trump Jr. is being represented by a Mafia lawyer who has defended four New York crime families. So now the lawyer has updated his résumé to say he’s defended five New York crime families.” — CONAN O’BRIEN

“Donald Jr. hired a lawyer yesterday. This lawyer in the past represented members of the Mafia, which actually makes sense. Because the Trumps are like the Corleone family — if all of them were Fredo.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah on the Big Question

Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah each insisted that the latest developments should settle the question of whether the Trump administration colluded with Russia.

Mr. Colbert held up a smoking gun. Mr. Noah went with a somewhat different metaphor.

“For so long, everyone was like, ‘Man there’s so much smoke, there is so much smoke, but we don’t know if there’s a fire!’ We’re on the ground dying from smoke inhalation — [coughs] ‘I just want to know if there’s a fire!’ [coughs] And today we’re like, ‘Yes! It’s a fire! I’m on fire! New problem — but now I know the truth!’” — TREVOR NOAH

The Republicans Lose Joe Scarborough

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” who were subjected to personal insults by the president on Twitter last month, spoke to Stephen Colbert on Tuesday. Mr. Scarborough, a former congressman, revealed that he was leaving the Republican Party.

SCARBOROUGH: You have to ask yourself: What exactly is the Republican Party willing to do? How far are they willing to go? How much of this country and our values are they willing to sell out?

COLBERT: But are you a Republican?

SCARBOROUGH: I am a Republican, but I’m not going to be a Republican anymore. I’ve kind of become an independent.

The Punchiest Punchlines (Priebus Edition)

“White House chief of staff Reince Priebus has dismissed the latest Trump-Russia story as ‘a nothing burger.’ Yeah, a nothing burger. When questioned about his really strange choice of words he explained, ‘My name is Reince Priebus, O.K.?’” — CONAN O’BRIEN

“I’d like to apologize to Eric Trump. We always thought you were the dumb one. We were wrong.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

The Bits Worth Watching

Conan O’Brien’s recurring Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin characters were interrupted by a loose-lipped third party.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z named their babies … what?

What We’re Excited About on Wednesday Night

John Oliver, whose “Last Week Tonight” took a break last week, joins Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” on Wednesday. Those two will probably be breaking the Trump Jr. news all the way down.

Also, Check This Out

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Our TV critic has some feel-good advice: Have you been warned that the series you’ve been meaning to binge-watch only gets good in the second season? Well, there’s nothing wrong with starting there.

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