(New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File) and (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Newly released emails linked to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon are reviving questions and scrutiny about the unreleased hours of “image-changing” footage he’s reported to have shot with the disgraced financier shortly before his 2019 arrest.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee’s Democrats published a database of messages to and from Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges. The trove includes multiple references to Bannon and several direct exchanges between the two, revealing a relationship more active than previously documented. Republicans followed suit by also releasing a tranche of documents, many of which included unflattering descriptions of Trump.
One July 2018 email published in Politico shows Epstein pitching Bannon on overseas access: “There are many leaders of countries we can organize for you to have one-on-ones,” he wrote. The following month, Epstein again urged him to “come to Europe.” Bannon replied with a striking warning: “Yes. But let’s discuss — there is a crazed jihad against u — I’ve never seen anything like it.” In another message, he added, “Somebody big has u in the gunsights.”
In the emails, Epstein even weighed in on the 2018 confirmation hearings for Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, advising Bannon to challenge the credibility of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who testified against Kavanaugh for sexual assault, suggesting that she could be accused of taking medications that cause memory loss.
The messages reignite curiosity about Bannon’s self-reported 12–15 hours of recorded conversations with Epstein. Earlier this summer, The Hollywood Reporter described the 2019 project as “seemingly designed to get Epstein ready for an image-changing sit-down interview with a news outlet like 60 Minutes, with Bannon playing the part of Mike Wallace.”
In July, while live on Real America’s Voice, Bannon promised to release the footage in early 2026. Calls for him to do were already loud — and notably included right-wing commentators. This summer, Roger Stone, Ben Shapiro, and Benny Johnson all publicly questioned why Bannon is continuing to hold onto the tapes.
With the latest email dump, Stone blasted Bannon on Thursday as a “backstabber” and accused him of taking Epstein’s money. Also on Thursday, Megyn Kelly, after reviewing a separate taped conversation involving Bannon, said the group sounded like “friends having a good time” while discussing ways to help Epstein’s public image, and asked pointedly, “What about Bannon’s own tapes?”
The post Epstein Emails Spark Interest in Steve Bannon’s Lost, ‘Image-Changing’ Epstein Interview first appeared on Mediaite.
