Monday on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews predicted Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller might make a deal in which President Donald Trump resigns from office in return for Mueller forgoing prosecution of Donald Trump, Jr. and Ivanka Trump.

Matthews said, “Let me finish tonight with how the Mueller investigation could end. Given the toughness Bob Mueller is showing, it looks like he would have no hesitation indicting anyone he finds guilty in his path.”

He continued, “If you did the crime, you’re going to do the time — that’s unless you’re ready to turn state’s evidence against the kingpin Donald Trump. Which brings us to a pair of Mueller subjects who lack that option — Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump. The president’s children stand right in the line of Mueller’s investigative progress — they stand as the next dominos to fall. But therein lies the problem, where earlier Mueller subjects have given Trump up, these two lack the option to do that. They can hardly testify against their father, which brings the country to the reckoning. If the prosecutor will not be stopped and the kids will not fall to him, we see the president’s adult children heading to prison.”

He added, “But what if the prosecutor were to offer the president an alternative, what if he were to say he would let the children walk if the old man does the same? They get to go scot-free if he’s willing to take the Agnew way out. That would mean giving up the presidency in exchange for acquittals all around, not just for himself, but for all his kids.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN