MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell suggests the Jeffrey Epstein documents the Trump administration is not releasing could lead to his resignation:

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: So yes – Congress issued the subpoena that produced these emails because Brad Edwards suggested that they do that on this program. And Congressman Ro Khanna, who was the next guest on this program that night, immediately said on television that he would take up that suggestion. And then he helped lead the charge for the subpoena – issued by the House, a Republican-controlled House. A Democratic member of the House of Representatives who gets the idea of issuing a subpoena to the Epstein estate on this program and then brings that idea into a Republican house of representatives and prevails and manages to persuade a House of Representatives controlled by Donald Trump’s loyalists to do something that has the potential to not just crush Donald Trump as a politician, but depending on what else might be revealed in the Epstein files and as a result of this subpoena, maybe Donald Trump’s presidency could come to an end. Maybe Donald Trump could become the second president to resign the presidency. The second Republican president to resign the presidency. How bad can this get for Donald Trump? We have no idea. But he does. Donald Trump knows exactly how bad it can get because he knows everything about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He knows everything that is or might be in the Epstein files or in the possession of the Epstein estate that could be damaging to him. He knows, and we see the way he’s behaving about this. This might be the worst of it. What we’ve discovered in Jeffrey Epstein’s emails today might just be the worst of it. And if it is, then Donald Trump can probably survive this. But Donald Trump himself is making an all-out effort to stop the release of the Epstein files after these emails were released today. Donald Trump has made the judgment that what remains hidden in the Epstein files must never be seen by anyone. And that is why he had Congresswoman Lauren Boebert in the White House today hoping she would be convinced to take her name off of the discharge petition which she had already signed in the House of Representatives. She did not bend to that pressure. The discharge petition has been officially filed after getting its 218th signature today when the newest member of the House of Representatives, Adelita Grijalva, in her first act as a member of the House became the most important member of the House today when she provided the 218th signature for that discharge petition which will come to a vote possibly next week in the House of Representatives that would force the release of the Epstein files. J.D. Vance is doing exactly what Gerald Ford did while the Nixon presidency was sinking and Richard Nixon was under increasing pressure over several months that led to his resignation. Gerald Ford said nothing. When things were the darkest for President Richard Nixon, Vice President Gerald Ford said nothing. And when Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Vice President Ford said, Our long national nightmare is over. Tonight, J.D. Vance is silent. Tonight, J.D. Vance is Gerald Ford. Gerald Ford said nothing about Richard Nixon, as Nixon sank deeper into scandal as Nixon on his way to impeachment, which he only avoided by resigning the presidency, Gerald Ford said nothing because Gerald Ford knew that when he eventually took over the presidency, he didn’t want the stain of Nixon on him. And so, J.D. Vance is silent tonight. But what is J.D. Vance supposed to say tonight when he reads an email written by Jeffrey Epstein during the Trump presidency in 2019, six months before Jeffrey Epstein’s second arrest saying, quote, of course he knew about the girls, meaning Donald Trump. Donald Trump has always denied any involvement in or knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and raping of children. The Washington Post is reporting that one of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails says Donald Trump never got a massage – that Trump wasn’t involved, according to this email. The email, written by Jeffrey Epstein, says: Trump knew of it and came to my house many times during that period, Epstein wrote in an email to himself on February 1, 2019, several months before he was arrested on trafficking charges and killed himself in jail. He never got a massage. So there’s Jeffrey Epstein himself letting Donald Trump off the hook – on that point. But Donald Trump has always insisted he never knew anything that Jeffrey Epstein was up to, never knew anything possibly illegal that Epstein was involved in. What is J.D. Vance, or Donald Trump, or any Trump defender supposed to say tonight when they read an email from Jeffrey Epstein – after the first criminal investigation of Epstein in Florida, which led to Epstein pleading guilty – where Epstein writes an email to his criminal co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2011, saying: I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump. Epstein says that one of the young girls in the investigation spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned – police chief, etc. I am 75% there. Donald Trump spent hours at Jeffrey Epstein’s house with one of Epstein’s victims, according to Jeffrey Epstein, in a private communication with his criminal co-conspirator – whose response to this was: I have been thinking about that. The only way Ghislaine Maxwell could have been thinking about that is if she knew exactly what Jeffrey Epstein was talking about in every word of that email. That means she knew what it meant when he said the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump. And Ghislaine Maxwell was not asked a single question about that email by Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer – who now serves as Donald Trump’s deputy attorney general – Todd Blanche. Blanche went to Florida to conduct a so-called interview with Ghislaine Maxwell. The Justice Department could have had that email, and hundreds of other emails we haven’t seen yet, that would be very specific about Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell. Those would have been legitimate and serious points of questioning for Ghislaine Maxwell – who has never answered any questions from any federal prosecutor or in her federal criminal trial about any of this. Before Donald Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer went down to Florida and threw softballs at her – and believed her when she was clearly lying to him – the Justice Department may have had all of these emails for many years. It’s very likely they did, judging by how easily the Epstein estate handed them over to Congress. Meanwhile, the inept White House press secretary, whether intentionally or not, revealed that the interview the Trump team had with Congresswoman Lauren Boebert today – to try to change her mind – was held in the Situation Room. That is the room in the White House reserved for the most secret communications, including verbal communications of the highest sensitivity in government. Imagine the panic in that room this morning when they were trying to convince a Republican member of the House to change her mind and take her name off the discharge petition – so that even with one more signature, it would not be enough. Imagine the pressure on Congresswoman Boebert in that room. Why didn’t she succumb to that pressure? Why didn’t she take her name off the discharge petition? Why did she leave her name on and allow that petition to get its final signature, so that it could now proceed toward a vote in the House of Representatives? Then Lauren Boebert tweeted this – at the same time the final signature on the discharge petition was obtained: I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people. Lauren Boebert not only refused to remove her name from the discharge petition – she taunted the Trump White House with that tweet at 4:22 p.m., at the very moment the final signature was affixed. It is impossible for a Republican member of the House of Representatives to be more defiant than that. Is Lauren Boebert’s defiance of Donald Trump, the Trump White House, and the Trump Justice Department – all of whom were trying to suppress the Trump–Epstein files – an indication of just how weak an argument the Trump team made in the secrecy of the Situation Room on behalf of Donald Trump? They could say anything to her in that room – and whatever they said was so weak that this Republican congresswoman left the Trump White House and publicly tweeted her defiance at the exact moment Democrats obtained the final signature on the discharge petition. Today is a demonstration of Donald Trump’s weakness – now within his own party.