When Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed convicted Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, the transcript reveals how delicately he chose his words to avoid pushing her to implicate President Donald Trump in any way, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained.

"For those of you who are following along at home, this is in pages 104-109. This is Ghislaine Maxwell talking about Donald Trump," said anchor Alicia Menendez. "She says, 'As far as I'm concerned, President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now, and I like him, and I've always liked him. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him' ... what do you make of that mention?"

"Well ... she is overly solicitous of the person who has given her, ultimately, the opportunity to speak with Todd Blanche," said Rubin. "Other than her mentions of President Trump herself, one of the things I find really interesting here is how carefully worded Todd Blanche's questions are, so as not to elicit an answer he doesn't want. So yes, we can make a lot out of the fact that Todd Blanche has a prior association with the president, but by no means is he a bad lawyer or a stupid lawyer."

One of the most striking examples of this, she said, is on page 108, just after they finished discussing Trump.

"Todd Blanche asks Ghislaine Maxwell, do you know whether masseuses from Mar-a-Lago spa ended up giving massages, private massages to Mr. Epstein? I'm not asking for what you may have read, but from at the time, your personal knowledge. Do you know whether that's true? And she responds, 'I don't, I don't recall. Is it possible? Yes, but I don't remember. I don't remember that.' And then he asks her again whether she recalls ever recruiting a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago. And she says that didn't happen."

This matters, she added, "because Virginia Giuffre was infamously recruited from the Mar-a-Lago locker room, where she was working what was supposed to be a fun summer job. In fact, Ghislaine Maxwell, according to Virginia Giuffre, approached her as she was reading a book about how to become a masseuse. That was a career opportunity she was interested in as a high school student at the time. Ghislaine Maxwell, according to Virginia Giuffre, pounced on that and used that as an opportunity to recruit her into Epstein's world. But was she a masseuse technically at Mar-a-Lago? She was not, and I was really struck by the precision of the wording here so as not to get into that."

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