MSNBC host and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele on MSNBC on August 22, 2025

MSNBC host Michael Steele is arguing that the new release of audio from convicted child predator Ghislaine Maxwell is likely being done deliberately as a "setup" aimed at minimizing President Donald Trump's connection to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

During the Friday episode of "The Weeknight," Steele dismissed the latest clips of Maxwell's interviews with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (who was previously Trump's personal criminal defense attorney) as a "trivial" attempt to get Trump off the hook. The former Republican National Committee chairman referred to Maxwell — who was Epstein's chief accomplice — as a "convicted pedophile" who was "full of crap."

"This is now, in my view — and I hope America sees this — as complete exposure of the lie that's being perpetrated in front of the American people," he said. "How do you think this plays? ... My view is this is a setup just like we saw with [former DOJ special counsel Robert] Mueller, right? Where [former Attorney General] Bill Barr went out in front and sort of laid down the tracks and told everybody what to think about the thing they were going to read or hear about later. This is a little bit — a lot — of that, I think."

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As Steele mentioned, Barr, who served during Trump's first term, made a public statement ahead of the release of the Mueller report in which he asserted that Trump was vindicated in Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia later found that Barr made "misleading public statements" about the report and displayed a "lack of candor."

Later in the segment, Steele played a clip of Maxwell's comments about the Wall Street Journal's report on a birthday album Maxwell assembled for Epstein's 50th birthday (which reportedly included a lewd drawing Trump made for Epstein). Maxwell claimed she couldn't recall asking Trump to send her something to include in the album, and suggested Epstein may have asked Trump for his contribution of his own volition.

"All right. so, yeah, Mr. Epstein was calling people ... 'Mr. Trump, could you send me a little thing I could put in a birthday book iIm putting together for myself?" Steele said incredulously. "How stupid do these people think we are?"

"There are going to be countless people out there who are going to get sucked into this narrative and believe — which is why they're doing it the way they're doing it — so that when when all the documents, if they ever do come out ... and Donald Trump's name is on every other frickin' page, at that point you've so poisoned the well with with trivial crap like this, where does that leave us? Where does this all go?"

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Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.

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