According to newly released Department of Justice documents, Steve Bannon once tried to turn Jeffrey Epstein into a co-conspirator against Pope Francis. In 2019 messages, Bannon told Epstein he would “take down (Pope) Francis,” adding, “The Clintons, Xi, Francis, EU – come on brother.”
Steve Bannon is a former White House chief strategist and adviser to President Donald Trump. He is also a media executive and co-founder of Breitbart News, known for promoting nationalist and populist political agendas.
Bannon saw the pope as a roadblock to his nationalist vision. In 2018, he described Francis to The Spectator as “beneath contempt,” accusing him of siding with “globalist elites.” He even urged Italian politician Matteo Salvini to “attack” the pontiff.
The DOJ files reveal that Bannon hoped Epstein could play a role in his campaign against Francis. This came years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction and just before his arrest for sex trafficking minors.
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Bannon also tried to weaponize a book. He wrote to Epstein about turning Frédéric Martel’s In the Closet of the Vatican into a movie: “You are now exec producer of ‘ITCOTV’ (In the closet of the Vatican).”
Epstein didn’t respond to the proposal and instead asked about filming Noam Chomsky. Martel said he could not agree to any film deal, as his publishers already controlled the rights.
Austen Ivereigh, Pope Francis’s biographer, said Bannon “badly misjudged the nature of the book – and Pope Francis.” Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official, said Bannon’s messages show a desire to fuse “spiritual authority with political power for strategic ends.” He added, “What those messages reveal is not merely hostility toward a pontiff, but a deeper attempt to instrumentalize faith as a weapon – precisely the temptation he sought to disarm.”
Bannon also leaned on conservative allies, but not all were on board. Cardinal Raymond Burke opposed turning Martel’s book into a film. Meanwhile, Bannon’s associate Benjamin Harnwell tried to turn the 800-year-old Certosa di Trisulti monastery in Italy into a nationalist-populist academy, a project mired in legal disputes.
Epstein’s own messages added a chilling layer. He joked with his brother in 2015 about inviting Pope Francis to his home for a “massage.” In 2018, he quoted Milton’s Paradise Lost to Bannon: “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”
The files show Bannon repeatedly tried to use media, books, and high-profile connections to attack the pope and advance his political agenda.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
