President Donald Trump’s former White House adviser Steve Bannon discussed opposition strategy with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, and Bannon said he wanted to “bring down” the pope, according to newly released files from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Messages exchanged between the two men in 2019, made public last month in a trove of documents, revealed that Bannon courted the late financier after the first Trump administration left office in an attempt to undermine the former pope.
Mr. Bannon had been highly critical of Mr. Francis, who was hostile to a “sovereignist” vision, a brand of nationalist populism that swept Europe in 2018 and 2019. Documents released by the Justice Department appear to show that Mr. Epstein helped Mr. Bannon build his movement.
Bannon sent a letter to Epstein in June 2019 saying, “I will bring down (Pope) Francis. The Clintons, Xi, Francis, and the EU are brothers.”
Pope Francis had become a major obstacle to Bannon’s brand of nationalist populism. In 2018, a former Trump aide described Francis in The Spectator as an “object of scorn,” accused him of siding with the “globalist elite,” and, according to “source material,” urged Matteo Salvini, now Italy’s deputy prime minister, to “attack” the pope. Mr. Salvini has used Christian iconography and language in pursuing his anti-immigration agenda.
Rome and the Vatican were important to Bannon. He founded the Rome bureau while running Breitbart News and has been involved in establishing a “Gladiator School” for political training to defend Judeo-Christian values not far from the Eternal City.
Francis, on the other hand, was a counterpoint to the Trumpian worldview, with his strong criticism of nationalism and advocacy of immigration a hallmark of his papacy.
Recently released Justice Department files revealed that Bannon sent multiple messages to Epstein in an attempt to undermine the late pope.
In his message with Epstein, Bannon referenced French journalist Frédéric Martel’s 2019 book “Inside the Vatican’s Closet,” which exposed the secrecy and hypocrisy of the church’s upper echelons. Martel caused a stir with his book, which claimed that 80% of the Vatican’s clergy were gay and explored how they kept their sexuality a secret.
The whole issue of homosexuality in the church has become a lightning rod for some conservatives, who see it as evidence of a deeper systemic crisis in the church, with some linking it to a broader sexual abuse scandal. Most experts and researchers believe that conflating sexual orientation and abuse is scientifically inaccurate.
Mr. Bannon expressed interest in adapting Mr. Martell’s book into a film after meeting him at a five-star hotel in Paris. In the message, Mr. Bannon appeared to suggest that Mr. Epstein may serve as an executive producer on the film. “You are currently the executive producer of ‘ITCOTV’ (Inside the Vatican Closet),” Bannon wrote.
It was unclear how serious Bannon’s proposal to Epstein was, and during the exchange, Epstein did not mention the proposal, instead asking about Bannon’s photographing of philosopher and intellectual Noam Chomsky. Martell said that when he met Bannon at the Hotel Le Bristol, he was told that he could not agree to any film deal because the publisher controlled the rights to the film and had already signed a contract with another company. He told CNN that Bannon may have wanted to “instrument” the book in his efforts against Pope Francis.
Epstein’s files show that on April 1, 2019, Epstein emailed himself “in a Vatican closet” and then sent Bannon an article titled “Pope Francis or Steve Bannon? Catholics have to choose,” to which Bannon responded, “It’s an easy choice.”
Austin Ivery, the late pope’s biographer, said Bannon thought he could use Martel’s book to embarrass and damage Pope Francis while claiming to “cleanse” the church. “I think he grossly misjudged the nature of the book and the nature of Pope Francis,” Ivery told CNN.
But as we now know, Bannon appears to have sent messages to Epstein years after he was convicted of child sex crimes in 2008, just before he was arrested for sex trafficking of minors.
The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official who has worked closely with Pope Francis, told CNN that Bannon’s message reflected a desire to blend “spiritual authority and political power for strategic purposes.”
The late Pope Spadaro explains that he resisted such ties. “What these messages reveal is not just animosity toward the Pope, but a deeper attempt to use faith as a weapon, the very temptation he sought to disarm.”
2018 and 2019 saw intense opposition to Francis, culminating in a document released in August 2018 by former papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, accusing him of failing to address abuses by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Francis was later cleared by a Vatican investigation.
But Bannon’s desire to adapt Martel’s book into a film cost him an ally in the Vatican. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a prominent conservative critic of Francis, said: “I have no idea that this book will ever be made into a movie.”
Burke was portrayed in an unflattering manner in Martel’s book. Mr. Burke and Mr. Bannon parted ways after Mr. Bannon severed ties with Dignitatis Humanae, a conservative research institute founded by Benjamin Harnwell, a British political adviser and close ally of Mr. Bannon based in Italy. His relationship with Bannon began after he severed ties with Dignitatis Humanae, a conservative research institute founded by Benjamin Harnwell, a British political adviser and close ally of Bannon based in Italy.
Mr. Harnwell had worked with Mr. Bannon to establish an academy to train nationalist and populist leaders in an 800-year-old former monastery called Certosa di Trisulti in the province of Frosinone, 76 kilometers southeast of Rome. Mr Harnwell is continuing his legal battle with Italy’s Ministry of Culture over the conversion of the monastery, with a public hearing scheduled for February 11th.
In 2019, the Italian government canceled the monastery lease given to Harnwell’s institute, citing fraud, nonpayment and misrepresentation by Harnwell. However, in 2024, a court in Rome found him innocent and he is trying to get his lease back.
Epstein’s files also reveal that in July 2018, Bannon forwarded to Epstein an email containing an article in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica with the headline “European Bannon: About to open a populist bastion in Brussels.” Mr. Bannon had forwarded an English translation of the article sent by Mr. Harnwell.
Harnwell told CNN that Epstein was “not involved in Trisulty.”
Elsewhere in the file, Epstein jokes with his brother Mark about inviting Pope Francis to his residence for a “massage” during the 2015 papal visit to the United States. Three years later, Mr. Epstein sent a message to Mr. Bannon saying he was “planning a trip for the Pope to the Middle East,” adding, “Headline – Tolerance.”
When Bannon shared with Epstein an article about the Vatican condemning “populist nationalism,” Epstein quoted John Milton’s Bible poem “Paradise Lost,” in which Satan is banished from heaven.
“It’s better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,” Epstein tells Bannon.
CNN has reached out to Bannon’s representatives for comment. Mr. Trump has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing or sexual misconduct regarding Mr. Epstein.
