Bannon has '16 hours' of Epstein interviews — some about Trump — locked in vault: report

17 July 2024

Steve Bannon, who was former President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist in 2017, reportedly has over a dozen hours of interview footage with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein that has yet to see the light of day.

Business Insider reported Wednesday that questions are still lingering about when Bannon's footage with the Trump-adjacent multimillionaire financier — who pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008 — will ever be seen by the public. Mark Epstein, who is Jeffrey's brother, told the outlet that Bannon's documentary was meant to "rehabilitate [Jeffrey's] reputation" after the Miami Herald published accounts from Epstein's alleged victims in 2018. The Herald's coverage ultimately resulted in Epstein getting indicted for sex trafficking of minors in Manhattan.

"[Bannon] told me he had like 16 hours of videotaping with Jeffrey in his vault," Mark Epstein said. "And he told me it was protected because it was witness preparation and it was protected under attorney-client privilege. But the thing is, Bannon's not an attorney."

The documentary is entitled "The Monsters: Epstein's Life Among the Global Elite," and was filmed in Epstein's homes in both Manhattan and Paris, France. Mark Epstein said Bannon asked him for $6 million to complete the documentary, but he turned him down. None of the footage has been seen by anyone — not even by prosecutors or witnesses in the trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for helping Epstein procure young girls for sex.

Jeffrey Epstein was a longtime friend of Trump in the 1980s and 1990s when he was a Manhattan real estate mogul. However, Mark Epstein said his brother relayed to him that he "stopped hanging out with Trump when he realized Trump was a crook."

In September of 2021, Bannon told the Daily Mail tabloid that his interviews with Epstein were part of "a planned 50 hours of open ended no holds barred interviews with Epstein for a 8 to 10 hour expose on his deep relationships with the global elites in finance, science, education, medicine, politics and culture."

That December, Bannon spokeswoman Alexandra Preate said the documentary would likely be released by Labor Day of 2022, though that day came and went with no additional word about when "The Monsters" would be released. Preate has reportedly been unresponsive to inquiries about the footage.

Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial. A New York medical examiner's report found that Epstein died by suicide from hanging. The facts surrounding Epstein's death are the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, given that his cellmate was transferred out the day before his death, the two men tasked with guarding him left him alone and that there was no video available of Epstein's hanging despite multiple surveillance cameras in the vicinity.

The DOJ's Office of the Inspector General released a lengthy report detailing the multiple breakdowns in security that took place the night of Epstein's death. His brother told Business Insider that he felt the report was "blatant bulls—."

Epstein's 2008 plea deal, which was regarded as unusually light given the severity of the crime, was arranged by then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, whom Trump appointed as Secretary of Labor in the early days of his administration. Acosta resigned after the Herald's article series about Epstein and the additional allegations against him — including that he had as many as 200 victims.

Bannon is currently serving a federal prison sentence for refusing to comply with a Congressional subpoena. He is due to be released in November.

Click here to read Business Insider's report in its entirety (subscription required).

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