Lawrence: Vance knew Epstein Files were 'a huge problem' - The Last Word - MS NOW

[Rhiannon12866]

MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell says that Trump has turned the Oval Office into a “personal demonstration of Trump derangement syndrome every time he speaks.” Now, the Situation Room has been "degraded to the place where they discuss the Epstein Files." Lawrence discusses new reporting from The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan on how Trump’s team tried to make Epstein “disappear.” - Aired on 06/10/2026.

[cliffside]

1. Full NYT article link ...

have not read it and in case it was not posted elsewhere on DU.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/magazine/trump-epstein-files-white-house-vance-doj.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pVA.b59X.DfKfPy4aGsUS&smid=url-share

Listen · 46:50 min

'On July 17, 2025, at around 6 o’clock in the evening, President Trump’s top officials filed into the White House Situation Room — the secure bunker where classified and high-stakes national security matters are discussed and decided. This was where President Barack Obama, along with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the president’s national security team, watched the raid that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Now, however, Trump’s most senior advisers had gathered — without him — to figure out how to gain some measure of control over a very different kind of crisis threatening to engulf the presidency: the Epstein files.

Ten days earlier, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. had jointly released a memo that bluntly stated that their review had found no “client list” of powerful men for whom the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had allegedly procured underage girls and young women. Intended to put to rest years of speculation and end the pressure campaign to release the voluminous material in the department’s possession, the memo instead had the opposite effect, setting off a backlash that was notably loud among the MAGA base.

And it was about to get worse: The Wall Street Journal was preparing a damaging article about Trump’s relationship with Epstein. The president’s desperate attempts to kill the story had failed. His team now had to get everyone onto the same page about how to counter the growing swarm of attention. They needed a gesture of transparency to appease an increasingly angry base, but also a way to convey the message that the president was sympathetic to his supporters’ concerns. Which itself was a problem, because he clearly wasn’t...."

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Wow. Thanks so much.

[cliffside]

3. Welcome, not sure if it was posted already, but please share when needed ...

maybe he'll be gone by the 4th

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Now wouldn't that be a relief?! But that's in less than a month. *sigh*

[SunSeeker]

5. So Vance is the leaker?