NOTE: "This reeks of a coverup."

How the Trump-Epstein scandal could endanger free speech in America.

I sat down with MSNBC’s Alex Witt to talk about the ballooning Epstein scandal … the Trump Administration’s shifting narrative … and the President’s own bizarre behavior. It all reeks of a coverup, I told Alex.

But the scandal could lead to something much worse.

Donald Trump is using his office to punish people who are trying to tell the truth. He has sued the Wall Street Journal for publishing a story about his alleged, sexually-charged birthday letter to Epstein. And as I wrote the other day, his anger could spiral into more insidious attacks on the free press and individuals who try to blow the whistle.

You are witnessing something never-before-seen in American history. Let me tell you why.

Watch/listen to our discussion, above.

Make no mistake: presidents have always bristled at the press. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, once called newspapers a “polluted vehicle” of falsehoods. Richard Nixon privately seethed over leaks and ordered illegal surveillance of reporters. George W. Bush sought to sue papers for publishing sensitive information about the War on Terror.

Yet for all their disdain, no president — not even the most thin-skinned — has launched as many personal and legal attacks on the press as Donald J. Trump. His lawsuits against major media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post mark a radical departure from democratic tradition and present a direct challenge to the constitutional principle of a free press.

What makes Trump’s conduct unprecedented is not merely that he has sued newspapers in his personal capacity. That has happened before, albeit rarely. In 1913, for instance, former President Teddy Roosevelt sued a small-town newspaper that accused him of public drunkenness. He won (symbolically), receiving a full six cents in damages. Roosevelt’s goal was to clear his name, not to intimidate the press ecosystem or undermine public trust in journalism.

What’s alarming is the scale, frequency, and intent of Trump’s actions. He has filed multiple defamation lawsuits as both a candidate and a former president. In doing so, he has targeted journalistic institutions for publishing critical columns and reporting. His lawsuits are part of a broader strategy to delegitimize independent media; indeed, in parallel with these lawsuits, as we all know, he has labeled reporters “the enemy of the people,” threatened to revoke broadcast licenses, and floated ideas like revoking citizenship of critical public figures.

Thankfully, these suits have been largely dismissed for failing to meet the bar set by New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), which requires public figures to prove “actual malice” to win libel cases.

But the danger lies not in the lawsuits themselves. It’s in the chilling effect they are meant to produce. When the most powerful man in the country treats criticism as libel and dissent as treason, he signals to political allies and private citizens that truth is negotiable and that power decides whether it will see the light of day.

Trump has pioneered is a vile culture of “intimidation-by-lawsuit.” Already it’s tested the boundaries of our constitutional system. Now his fury over revelation about his own ties to Jeffrey Epstein are driving him to push those limits event further.

So as the Epstein scandal continues to unfold, my caution would be this: don’t just focus on the salacious bits. Watch what’s happening to the First Amendment.