a diversion. That's what a federal judge called Donald Trump's Justice Department's request to unseal the grand jury testimony in the criminal case of Gain Maxwell in which she was convicted of sex trafficking for and with Jeffrey Epstein, who said he was Donald Trump's closest friend for 10 years. Diversion is what Donald Trump is all about now more than ever. Donald Trump doesn't want the news media attention on his old friend Jeffrey Epstein and what the Epstein files might say about Donald Trump where w ...

I mean, today NBC News reported that tonight Vice President JD Vance is hosting a meeting or supposed to host a meeting with top law enforcement officials to discuss how to deal with the Epstein fallout. Now, that meeting, which again was reportedly scheduled for this meeting, for this evening, was set to include Attorney General Pam Bondi, who of course just launched a bogus investigation of Barack Obama to keep Trump happy. It was said to include FBI Director Cash Patel, who was picked for his job after c ...

Trump White House scrambling now late in the day to quell another Epstein related uproar. Now there are reports that they're going to have this highle meeting tonight. You might have heard about this at the vice president's residence which itself is a bit unusual. Although you could have meetings in any number of places in the evening with top staff. What's different though is that the vice president now is trying to tamp down any expectations that this meeting is about Epstein or will lead to more Epstein ...

It is contemptable. Yes. Despicable. You bet. Shameful, immoral, reprehensible, wrong. Check, check, check, and check. But while there are a thousand ways to describe the Trump administration's approach to handling the Jeffrey Epstein crisis today, the one we'll start off with this afternoon is instructive because one can learn a lot about the totally upside down and backward dynamic of the ongoing spiraling debacle and crisis simply by observing who team Trump is taking great care to accommodate, who they' ...

The last word with Lawrence O'Donnell starts right now. Hey Lawrence, welcome back from vacation. >> Hey Jen, thank you.Uh, so I know there's a lot of people out there who have trouble listening to Donald Trump's lies and ramblings and madness. Imagine being a Nobel Prize winning economist listening to Donald Trump talk about economics. Uh Paul Krugman's going to join us later in this hour because he suffers that every day as a Nobel Prize-winning economist who has to listen to Donald Trump.>> I mean, he mu ...

Tonight, this blunt and jarring new statement in a case commanding much public attention. Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Gileain Maxwell is not.Those words from Maxwell's attorneys today as they filed a request to block the government's efforts to release long secret grand jury transcripts in the investigation of infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell is serving 20 years as Epstein's co-conspirator in the sex trafficking of young women. Her lawyers insist that despite whatever interest the public may have ...

Good evening. Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Mel. We have a lot to cover tonight. There is that showdown in Texas where Republicans say they will try to arrest Democrats who left the state to protest what they call a kind of MAGA power grab that distorts democracy at that state level. Also tonight, Andrew Weissman coming up on something that is deeply disturbing. It's what Donald Trump admitted he wanted to do, what many prosecutors and investigators would refuse to do, which is apparently investigate the for ...

Former special counsel Jack Smith is under investigation at the behest of Republicans. The US Office of Special Counsel, a sensibly an independent federal agency, said it's looking into Smith for alleged violations of the Hatch Act, a law that bars certain political activities by government officials. The president and his Republican allies alleged that quote, "Two federal investigations Smith led into then candidate Trump for his role in the January 6th insurrection and his failure to return classified doc ...

California Congressman Robert Garcia. Thanks for joining us on a Saturday to talk. And uh Congressman, what questions and concerns do you have about this move of Gillan Maxwell from Florida to Texas.>> Well, well, the whole thing is very concerning and it's not just this move, but I think every day more information comes out and the real question is what is Donald Trump hiding and what, you know, what is this cover up that's happening clearly at the White House. with with Miss Maxwell, she was not eligible ...

the lawyer for the only person in prison for Epstein crimes, Gelain Maxwell. She was convicted of the luring of minors, the sex trafficking, revealing she has now been moved to a minimum security prison in Texas. This is unusual. It is suspicious.It comes after her suspicious DOJ interviews and where Trump wouldn't rule out pardoning her. This looks like help for her. Looks like leniency. Looks like a reward.And the reason it looks like that is because A, there was no automatic sort of legal process that wo ...