MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell has called out what he described as the “most perverse” detail of Ghislaine Maxwell’s 9-hour interview with the Department of Justice—the laughter.
Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, sat for two days of questioning from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who pressed Maxwell on roughly 100 people connected to Epstein.
The Epstein files are the heart of a Trump-fueled MAGA conspiracy theory that the disgraced financier was killed as part of a cover-up, despite all official investigations ruling his death a suicide.
The GOP-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released more than 33,000 Epstein documents on Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with multiple victims of Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
O’Donnell said what was missing from the official transcript of the DOJ interview—but present on the audio recording—was repeated laughter from Maxwell, her attorneys, and federal officials.
“The worst thing about it is the laughter. That’s the part that the news reports haven’t told you about. There was a lot of laughter. They all laughed. And no one laughed more than Ghislaine Maxwell,” O’Donnell said on The Last Word.
“In 9 hours of what turned out to be casual conversation spread over a Thursday and a Friday in Florida, the single sickest reaction you could have in that discussion of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex crimes was laughter. And they all did it.”
O’Donnell made sure to spread his scorn among everyone present in the room on July 24 and 25. “Ghislaine Maxwell laughed the most, joined by her three criminal defense lawyers. And their laughter was joined by the four people from the Trump Justice Department sitting in that room with a convicted sex trafficker, an indicted perjurer. And they laughed the day away with her two days in a row,” he said.
According to O’Donnell, the transcript released by the DOJ on a Friday afternoon failed to capture those moments. “This transcript that we have, it’s not real,” he said.
“It’s not a transcript of everything that was said in that room. This is a transcript only of what was recorded in that room. And the recording was given to someone to type it up. So we have no idea what was said before an FBI agent pressed record. And we have no idea what was said after an FBI agent pressed stop.”
O’Donnell said Blanche appeared eager to include as many prominent names as possible in the transcript so Trump’s would be “swimming in a sea” of others, including members of the Kennedy family who never met Epstein.
“The most perverse thing that you could possibly have done in that room was to fill that room with laughter, which Ghislaine Maxwell did repeatedly,” O’Donnell said.
It comes after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released more than 33,000 Epstein documents on Tuesday evening, after a closed-door meeting with multiple victims of Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The DOJ and Maxwell’s attorney have been contacted for comment.
