Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon is a political strategist, media executive, and commentator who served as White House chief strategist under President Donald Trump from January to August 2017. He previously served as executive chairman of Breitbart News (2012–2018) and was a key figure in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. DOJ files released in early 2026 revealed communications between Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein in 2018 and 2019 — including exchanges about a proposed documentary that Bannon texted would “take down” Pope Francis. Bannon is not accused of any crime in connection with Epstein.

Background

Bannon was born November 27, 1953, in Norfolk, Virginia. He served as a U.S. Navy officer, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before entering media and politics. He became executive chairman of Breitbart News in March 2012 following the death of founder Andrew Breitbart. He joined the Trump presidential campaign as chief executive in August 2016 and was appointed White House chief strategist in January 2017. He left the White House in August 2017.

In August 2020, Bannon was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering related to the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign. He was pardoned by President Trump on January 20, 2021. In a separate case, he was convicted in July 2022 of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House January 6th Committee and served a four-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, from July to October 2024.

The Bannon-Epstein Relationship

According to the released files and subsequent reporting, Bannon and Epstein met around 2017 and remained in contact — several years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution and shortly before his 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges. The communications were reported by outlets including CNN, The Daily Beast, The Hollywood Reporter, the Associated Press, and The Week.

Videotaped sessions (2019)

By his own count, Bannon filmed roughly 12 to 15 hours of videotaped sessions with Epstein at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2019, as mounting press coverage and renewed investigations were closing in on the financier. Bannon has publicly characterized the footage as the basis for a documentary series — he gave it the working title “The Monster” and suggested it could be released through a streamer such as Netflix.

Others have described the sessions differently. Author Michael Wolff, who was aware of the project, told The Hollywood Reporter that “there’s no question the tapes were media training,” adding that “there’s no possible way Epstein would have signed off on them being used in a documentary.” The setup resembled a documentary shoot, with Bannon playing the part of a hard-charging interviewer — likened to Mike Wallace — lobbing prosecutorial questions in what looked like preparation for a potential image-rehabilitating interview with a program such as “60 Minutes.” Bannon’s own count of the footage has not been independently confirmed, and accounts of its purpose differ.

2018: Shared grievances

Earlier correspondence from 2018 shows Bannon and Epstein discussing the Vatican. Bannon had long viewed Pope Francis as an opponent of his “sovereigntist” vision of nationalist populism in Europe. In a 2018 interview with The Spectator, Bannon described Pope Francis as “beneath contempt,” accusing him of siding with “globalist elites.”

April 2019: The Pope Francis plot

On April 1, 2019, Epstein sent Bannon an article titled “Pope Francis or Steve Bannon? Catholics must choose.” Bannon replied: “Easy choice.”

Around this period, Bannon pursued a plan to adapt French journalist Frédéric Martel’s 2019 book “In the Closet of the Vatican” — which claimed about 80 percent of the clergy working in the Vatican are gay — into a documentary film. Bannon met Martel in Paris at the Hotel Le Bristol to discuss film rights. Martel told CNN he declined, saying his publisher controlled the rights, and that he believed Bannon wanted to “instrumentalize” his book against Pope Francis.

June 2019: “Will take down Francis”

In June 2019 — weeks before Epstein’s July 6 arrest — Bannon messaged Epstein about the proposed documentary: “Will take down [Pope] Francis. The Clintons, Xi, Francis, EU — come on brother.”

Bannon also texted Epstein: “You are now exec producer of ‘ITCOTV’” — an abbreviation of “In the Closet of the Vatican.” In the exchange, Epstein did not take up the offer and instead asked about Bannon filming the philosopher Noam Chomsky. In another message, after Bannon shared an article about the Vatican condemning populist nationalism, Epstein responded by quoting Milton: “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”

Cardinal Burke and the Dignitatis Humanae Institute

U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a prominent conservative critic of Pope Francis, was reported to have distanced himself from the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, a conservative Catholic organization that had become closely identified with Bannon. Of the proposed film, Burke wrote: “I am not at all of the mind that the book should be made into a film.”

Nobel Committee Connection

Separately, the files show Epstein invoked his ties to Thorbjørn Jagland — former Norwegian prime minister and chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 2009 to 2015 — when courting Bannon. In a September 2018 text exchange, during Trump’s first term, Epstein wrote to Bannon: “donalds head would explode if he knew you were now buds with the guy who on monday will decide the nobel peace prize.” He added: “I told him next year it should be you when we settle china.”

According to the Associated Press, Epstein played up the same Nobel connection in outreach to other prominent figures, including Richard Branson, Lawrence Summers, and Bill Gates. In February 2026, Jagland was charged in Norway with aggravated corruption in connection with his Epstein ties.

Role in Epstein Files Discourse

Bannon has been a prominent voice in the broader political conversation around the Epstein files, using his “War Room” podcast and media appearances to call for full disclosure of Epstein’s associates. He has framed the Epstein case as emblematic of elite corruption and pushed for the release of unredacted documents.

Bannon has acknowledged his contact with Epstein, saying he courted the financier in order to make a documentary about him. He has described the footage he filmed as journalism intended to expose Epstein. CNN and The Daily Beast reported contacting representatives for Bannon for comment on the Pope Francis correspondence; neither indicated that his representatives responded.

What Is Established

The released files show that Bannon maintained a personal, communicative relationship with Epstein through at least June 2019 — weeks before Epstein’s arrest — and that, by his own account, he filmed roughly 12 to 15 hours of videotaped sessions with Epstein that same year. The communications included discussion of a media project targeting Pope Francis, with Bannon texting that Epstein was its “exec producer,” though accounts differ on how serious that proposal was and Epstein did not take it up in the exchange. Bannon is named in the files and has not been accused of any crime in connection with Epstein; he has positioned himself as a public advocate for the files’ release while acknowledging his own dealings with Epstein.

Documents

Primary-source records that name or reference Steve Bannon. Inclusion in these documents is not, by itself, evidence of wrongdoing; Bannon has not been accused of any crime in connection with Epstein.

• DOJ Epstein Files (full EFTA release portal) — Per CNN, the Associated Press, and other reporting on the early-2026 DOJ release, the files contain 2018–2019 text messages and emails between Bannon and Epstein, including the exchange in which Bannon wrote a proposed documentary would “take down [Pope] Francis” and called Epstein its “exec producer,” and the September 2018 messages in which Epstein invoked his Nobel Committee ties.