0:00
Let's ask John Sweeney, presenter of the Global Podcast, Hunting Ghislaine, and author of a book of the same name
0:06
John, good to have you on the programme. Hi, hello Matt. Hello mate, so tell me, what do you think? Is this going to silence the critics and the sceptics and the conspiracy theorists
0:19
No, what's happened is very, very weird and very, very creepy. you've got a convicted sex offender, a sex trafficker
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who, I mean I sat through the entire court case and when I was there
0:35
the evidence from four women who as young girls had been sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein
0:45
and Ghislaine had organised it their evidence was compelling and when it came to the critical moment
0:52
Ghislaine Maxwell did not take the stand. She did not testify in her own defence
0:57
And that is why the jury, there were no ifs, no buts
1:01
the jury convicted her of sex crimes. Now what's happened is she's saying the President of the United States
1:07
did nothing wrong as far as I'm concerned. And guess what? Before she'd made this statement, her prison conditions improved
1:15
So this feels like the abandonment of justice in the United States of America
1:22
under Donald Trump. It's also, if you look at the nitty-gritty of the statement
1:27
she's re-litigating under the patsiest of questions from a guy who is now in the Department of Justice but was Trump personal lawyer as you pointed out Matt Now relitigating the entire case and effectively and the names are redacted
1:44
but it seems that she is blaming the late Virginia Roberts-Dufresne because the context is clear that we're talking about Virginia Roberts-Dufresne
1:52
as being somebody who helped Jeffrey Epstein get these sexualised massages from underage girls
1:59
including her, of course, herself. So this is wrong. Virginia Roberts-Dufresne recently committed suicide. And what we're getting here now is Trump's former lawyer, now in the DOJ, setting up a patsy interview in which Ghislaine gets away with talking nonsense
2:18
and remember she never testified when she had an opportunity. So she's a convicted criminal and she's been allowed to tell her story
2:27
in an absurd and dishonest and lying way. And in return, she's saying, Mr. Trump did nothing wrong
2:36
I don't buy it for a second now. She also said, by the way, that that infamous photograph
2:42
which had Ghislaine in it and, of course, Prince Andrew, with his arm around the late Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 years old
2:49
She said that picture was a fake. It's not a fake. And if it's a fake, why on earth did Prince Andrew pay the late Virginia Giuffre
3:01
something like £12 million to make her go away? It's not a fake
3:07
There's never been any evidence that it's a fake. the picture is true and it shows Prince Andrew
3:12
Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Roberts in a compromising situation with the prince hand halfway around the waist of this girl who was 17 years old at the time
3:24
Not a fake. Virginia Roberts-Jouffre was a victim of sex trafficking. Ghislaine Maxwell organized it
3:32
and Ghislaine Maxwell is now making up dark fairy stories and in return is saying, oh, there's nothing to see here
3:40
Now, by the way, I do not believe that Trump's a pedophile
3:44
Were there other things that happened when he was inside Jeffrey Epstein's peculiar world
3:53
I think there may well have been. I think there may well have been
3:57
But this is no way to carry out a proper... This is not right
4:06
It's not proper. We're blaming the victims. And it's very creepy. and let me ask you this then as well i mean as we know trump is getting a lot of heat from
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his own people his own supporters many of them at least for not doing what he promised to do which
4:21
is reveal the epstein client list and gillian maxwell has said there is no such client list
4:26
i can see why she might want to suck up to trump because trump has the power to you know to give
4:32
her a pardon you know she could be living in a hotel rather than a jail in a couple of weeks time
4:38
if he does that. But why is she saying that that picture with Andrew is a fake
4:45
Because I think she still has some kind of weird loyalty to Prince Andrew And because that picture is incriminating Though remember in part because it often the case that victims of sexual abuse often get their stories wrong
5:05
It doesn't mean they're fundamentally lying about what happens. It means that fancy lawyers who have paid lots of money
5:11
can make them look to be liars and fundamentally dishonest when they're fundamentally telling the truth
5:17
So the DOJ back in the day did not go. They did not call Virginia Roberts-Dufresne. But it's also true to say, and we've got to be fair about this, that I don't think there was a client list. I do not think the Trump's a pedophile
5:34
And to be fair, Glenn Maxwell has also said that Trump isn't
5:40
Now, I think that's true. It's also possible that Trump and Clinton and other men got up to all sorts of stuff under Epstein's route, which they won't like in the public domain
5:53
So there's an embarrassment there, which could be a significant embarrassment. It's not criminal as far as I can tell
6:00
The big picture here is Trump's blown himself up in that he went on and on and on at Biden before saying you've got to release the Epstein files
6:11
Now he's in power. It's fishy that he hasn't. He was foolish to say what he said when he was out of power
6:17
And he's been blown up by his own petard. OK, we'll leave it on that note then
6:24
The word petard, we don't have it very often on LBC on a Saturday morning, but but it's good to have it
6:29
John Swinney, it's good to have you as well. Thank you very much. He's the presenter of the global podcast, Hunting Elaine, and author of a book of the very same name
