'Extraordinarily explosive': Lawmaker erupts as Trump tries to 'bury' Epstein bombshell

A Democratic lawmaker had a fiery exchange with a CNN anchor Wednesday over the release of new emails from the Jeffrey Epstein estate that suggest President Donald Trump may have known of the abuse of at least one Epstein survivor, Virginia Giuffre.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) told CNN's Brianna Keilar that the newly released emails were "extraordinarily explosive" and indicated they could "implicate the president," she argued.

The emails suggest "that he not only knew what was happening in Jeffrey Epstein's circle, but that he spent time with at least one, if not multiple, of Jeffrey Epstein's named sex victims, as well as there's discussion in the email that you just cited between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein about the fact that he had been the 'dog that didn't bark.' And they specifically are talking about the police. So what this implicates is that potentially going back all the way to 2011, even after Jeffrey Epstein had been investigated for criminal activity, not just in sex trafficking, but also for financial crimes, which we know," Stansbury said.

She also indicated that the White House redacted Giuffre's name and suggested Trump was telling House Republicans not to sign the discharge petition that would prompt the Department of Justice to release more information about the Epstein investigation.

"U.S. Attorney [Alex] Acosta lied under his deposition about that Donald Trump was being named by Epstein and by Ghislaine Maxwell as being the dog that didn't bark on them," she added. "And so the question is, what did Donald Trump have on them? Was he engaged in these activities? And why is Donald Trump calling Republican members of the House today and yesterday to threaten them to get off of the discharge petition if he thinks that we should be focused on reopening the government, then why is he personally calling Republicans and threatening them right now?"

Stansbury suggested Trump might have something to hide.

"And my question is, if they were not engaged in an elaborate smokescreen and cover-up, then why the hell is the president calling and threatening members of Congress for them not to take a vote on releasing these files? After these files have already been subpoenaed? They are trying to bury this, and the president is personally trying to stop Congress from asking for these files again," she said.