Steve Bannon assured the convicted sex offender that he was coming across great.
“You’re engaging, you’re not threatening, you’re natural, you’re friendly,” the far-right provocateur told the 66-year-old financier Jeffrey Epstein. “[Y]ou don’t look at all creepy, you’re a sympathetic figure.”
That exchange took place in 2019, the same year Epstein died by suicide on Rikers Island. When it was exposed, Bannon admitted to recording more than 15 hours of footage with Epstein for what he claimed was a documentary that he never previously announced. The former adviser to Donald Trump said his intent was not what it appeared to be — prepping Epstein for a series of interviews following an expected arrest for human trafficking — but rather exposing his interview subject.
Epstein’s “perversions and depravity toward young women were part of a life that was systematically supported, encouraged and rewarded by a global establishment that dined off his money and influence,” Bannon told The New York Times.
Bannon never released that documentary. A complicating factor, perhaps, is that Bannon's former boss was himself a part of the elite circle around Epstein, one who now stands accused of assaulting a woman who the deceased sex offender delivered to him at Trump Tower as part of an allegedly "twisted game."
Stacey Williams, a former model, said in an interview with The Guardian on Wednesday that she first met Trump in 1992, introduced to him at a Christmas party by Epstein, who she had briefly dated.
“It became very clear then that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together,” Williams told the outlet.
It also soon became clear, she said, that the two men had the same attitude towards women.
During a subsequent visit with Epstein to Trump Tower in early 1993, Williams said the former president sexually assaulted her. Trump almost immediately began groping her “all over my breasts,” she told The Guardian, as well as her waist and buttocks. Describing herself as frozen and “deeply confused” by confused by what was happening, Williams said it appeared that Trump and Epstein were smiling at each other during the incident.
A Trump spokesperson denied that any such assault took place, describing Williams’ allegations as “unequivocally false.” But two friends of Williams told The Guardian that she had told them about the alleged incident. She also provided the outlet a postcard of Mar-a-Lago, purportedly sent to her later in 1993 and signed by Trump: “Stacey — Your home away from home. Love Donald.”
When Epstein died by suicide following his arrest in 2019, conspiracy theories flourished, particularly on the far right, which highlighted the financier’s ties to the likes of former President Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, both of whom publicly associated with Epstein prior to his arrests (neither has been credibly accused of wrongdoing). These theories typically omitted any connection to Trump, whose secretary of labor, Alexander Acosta, had earlier, as a U.S. prosecutor, negotiated a plea deal with Epstein that allowed him to avoid federal sex trafficking charges.
On the right, Epstein continues to be used to tar those to their left. In a post this week on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared a meme alleging that “the celebrities coming out to support Kamala Harris” were on all the “Epstein Guest List.”
But the only candidate in the 2024 presidential race with any real connection to the deceased pedophile is the Republican nominee.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump said in 2002, speaking with New York Magazine. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
As The Washington Post reported, there is “clear evidence” linking Trump to the disgraced financier. “Epstein visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and posed for photos there with Trump in 1997 and 2000,” the Post noted. In addition, “Epstein’s voluminous personal address book — leaked by an Epstein employee in 2009 — contained 14 phone numbers for Trump, his wife, Melania, and members of his staff, according to media reports.”
Trump has since distanced himself from Epstein and denied any knowledge of his wrongdoing, which included raping and trafficking scores of young girls. But the former president has himself been found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carrol and dozens of other women "have accused Trump of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s," as The 19th reported.
On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign charged his latest accuser with lying, dismissing her as a Democratic activist. Williams had shared her story on a recent Zoom call for a group called, “Survivors for Kamala,” which is supporting Vice President Harris’ bid for the White House.
Over the summer, when asked by a reporter, Trump said he might declassify files related to Epstein’s case if he wins in November. But he then hedged, suggesting the files could include damning but false claims.
“You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there,” he said, “because it’s a lot of phony stuff in that whole world.”
