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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) may go from hero to zero in Donald Trump's eyes as a "rift" grows within the House GOP caucus over the Jeffrey Epstein files and Republicans side with Democrats in demanding transparency.

Johnson chalked up a big win with the president by guiding the megabill Trump demanded through the House, and basked in the glory for days before the Department of Justice announced that the files on the accused pedophile would not be released.

After some of Trump's biggest MAGA supporters spiraled into open revolt, far-right lawmakers like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) joined them — with more to follow as the Wall Street Journal dropped two bombshell reports on the relationship between the president and Epstein.

Appearing on MSNBC with host Anna Cabrera, Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman claimed Johnson may now suffer the same fate as two other Republican House speakers faced when they couldn't keep their GOP colleagues in line.

"There's a big rift right between Johnson and members of his party. How, help us understand that rift?" the MSNBC host asked.

"If it was only Massie, it would be one thing," Sherman replied. "But the bigger problem for Trump is that it's some of his allies. [GOP Rep.] Brian Jack of Georgia, who worked for Donald Trump in the White House in the last administration, is a close ally of the president, voted for a deposition or a subpoena yesterday that would take the documents from the Justice Department, turn over those documents."

"If it were just Massie, this wouldn't be a problem," he repeated. "It's much more than Massie and, as for the speaker, I don't know what kind of problems Johnson is going to have. Trump has turned on basically every other speaker who has worked with him, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, in various ways, and he hasn't turned on Johnson yet"

"But again, this is a why, in my view and I think in the House Republican leadership's view, this is a problem that the White House has not given a lot of cover for Republicans on," he added. "I mean, they're just part of the problem. The rift is at least being exacerbated by the White House and their inability to give any political cover to the story."

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Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) pressed Christopher Fox, an assistant to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, about why information was released smearing former President Barack Obama on the same day as President Donald Trump was reported to be in Jeffrey Epstein's case files.

During a Thursday confirmation hearing, Slotkin asked Fox why the Trump administration had waited years to claim Obama was part of a "treasonous conspiracy" and "years-long coup."

A right-wing broadcaster trotted out a new narrative before President Donald Trump's deputy attorney general goes to meet with Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator in prison.

Newsmax host Greg Kelly suggested that Ghislaine Maxwell, who's serving a 20-year prison term for convictions on sex trafficking and other crimes, might actually be a victim of Epstein, who was described as her accomplice during trial testimony, ahead of her meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, reported Media Matters.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) suggested that Republicans might push for a lighter sentence for convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell if they agreed with her upcoming testimony.

On Wednesday, Burchett was asked if he trusted Maxwell after House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) issued a subpoena for her to sit for a deposition related to Jeffrey Epstein.

The Trump administration's new narrative that former President Barack Obama and others may be guilty of treason have ‘landed with a thud,” MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire said Thursday — even among some hardcore conservatives.

“It is so rare when there are cracks in the MAGA wall, and yet we're seeing it now no matter what President Trump tries,” Lemire said.

Pro-MAGA correspondent Brian Glenn said he overheard reporters whispering "that's not true" and "that's a lie" at a briefing where Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggested President Barack Obama was guilty of treason.

At the Wednesday briefing, Gabbard said she had referred Obama and others to the Department of Justice for "treasonous conspiracy" and a "years-long coup" against President Donald Trump.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) accused President Donald Trump of engaging in a "cover-up" of his involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A House Oversight subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the Department of Justice for files on the accused sex trafficker despite Speaker Mike Johnson's efforts to avoid a vote on the issue, but Whitehouse told "CNN News Central" that he's not sure whether the Senate would agree to push for their release.

CNN's resident conservative Scott Jennings got called out Wednesday for making a cynically insincere defense of President Donald Trump against insinuations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The president has been unable to change the topic away from demands for the release of a client list of the pedophile, and Democratic operative Karen Finney told "CNN News Central" the situation reminded her of the sex abuse scandal that engulfed the Catholic Church.

A Democratic congressman put President Donald Trump's name and the word "pedophile" into the same sentence, prompting a hasty scramble by a CNN host to make a legal disclaimer — and change the topic.

Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-CA) appeared Thursday on "CNN This Morning," where host Erica Hill asked him to comment on the latest developments in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has pitted the president against the MAGA movement he built.

A decision by the White House to trot out Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard in the middle of a press conference on Wednesday earned the Donald Trump administration a thrashing on MSNBC on Thursday morning.

With the White House trying to put out the Jeffrey Epstein firestorm, press secretary Karoline Leavitt turned over the lectern to Gabbard who proceeded to spin a tale about Russia having information on Hillary Clinton that indicated she had “psycho-emotional problems” which were being treated with medication going into the 2016 election

Jeffrey Epstein's infamous birthday book is an "absolute fact," according to an attorney who represented more than 200 of the sex offender's victims.

Attorney Bradley Edwards told MSNBC's "The Last Word" the 2003 book, which was compiled on the occasion of the late financier's 50th birthday and revealed last week by the Wall Street Journal, that "multiple" victims of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell knew about the birthday book, reported The Daily Beast.

The panel on CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip" erupted on Wednesday night after a GOP strategist tried to defend President Donald Trump's new story about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

GOP strategist Scott Jennings tried to defend Trump's assertion that Democrats created the Epstein files to damage Trump politically. Host Abby Phillip and a couple of other panelists took the opportunity to show Jennings just how wrong that theory is.