Photo: Alamy | Analysis by Summer Lane
As internet sleuths continue to comb through the millions of documents contained in the latest Epstein files drop from the Department of Justice, a longtime MAGA ally and commentator has released a statement addressing his inclusion in those files.
Steve Bannon, the host of “War Room” and a former advisor to President Donald Trump, is mentioned multiple times in the Epstein files, amid his former relationship with the late and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Messages allegedly between Bannon and presumably Epstein cover a broad range of subjects, as the former was reportedly seeking to film a documentary about the financier.
Being mentioned in the Epstein files in no way implies any kind of wrongdoing, but it hasn’t stopped the internet from driving conversations about the impact the late financier’s bad reputation has had on those around him.
Epstein reportedly died of suicide while awaiting trial in 2019, where he was charged with child sex trafficking. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and procuring a child for prostitution, but he was released from jail in 2009 after serving an extremely light sentence, according to the Associated Press.
Bannon’s alleged text messages and emails, unveiled in a multi-million-document file drop from the DOJ, have driven wild speculation and rumors online, as reporters, X users, and MAGA faithful have tried to make sense of the conversations, which lack full context and appear to have occurred before Epstein’s high-profile arrest in 2019.
Some of the communications seem to center on Bannon’s intention to potentially help Epstein rehab his image in the months before the financier’s arrest. In one document from the DOJ, Bannon’s alleged text reads: “We need to work around your 38–first we need to push back on the lies ; then crush the pedo/trafficking narrative ; then rebuild your image as philanthropist[.]”
However, Bannon heavily disputes that rehabilitating Epstein’s image was his aim, noting that his conversations were purely centered on getting information for his film.
In a statement to The New York Times, Bannon finally broke his silence on the issue, acknowledging the communications in the DOJ documents and telling the outlet: “I am a filmmaker and TV host with decades of experience interviewing controversial figures. That’s the only lens through which these private communications should be viewed — a documentary filmmaker working, over a period of time, to secure 50 hours of interviews from a reclusive subject.”
According to the outlet, the documentary that Bannon was working on may be released sometime in 2026.