Steve Bannon defended his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein on Monday, telling the New York Times that their “seemingly chummy” relations were strictly related to his unreleased documentary on the late sex criminal.
As for why the far-right media figure did not press Epstein over 12 hours of interviews on his treatment of women — and specifically on his 2008 prison sentence for soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution and the mounting trafficking allegations against him at the time of those interviews — a spokesperson said Bannon simply hadn’t gotten to that yet.
“Mr. Bannon did not ask Mr. Epstein directly about his treatment of women … His spokesman said Mr. Bannon did not get deeper into that topic in 12 hours of interviews but planned to address it later on,” the Times wrote of the interview recordings.
Elsewhere in their interviews, Bannon did ask Epstein if he had reflected on the circumstances of his 2008 arrest.
“No,” the financier replied. “I would just say how strange that this happens.”
Bannon’s spokesperson also denied that Bannon media trained Epstein as he faced heightened scrutiny around his sex crimes, despite text messages arranging plans to stage mock interviews for such trainings. They also denied that Bannon accepted lavish perks of their friendship such as use of Epstein’s private jet, residence and medical care, despite text messages and itinerary records indicating that he had.
Of the 3 million pages of Epstein-related files made public earlier this month, Bannon’s name appears nearly every day in the six months leading up to Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, the Times report. But Bannon’s camp maintained they were just texting to lay the groundwork for their ongoing documentary.
In a direct statement, Bannon told the Times his relationship with Epstein was strictly professional and that his years-in-the-making project would “destroy the very myths he created.”
“I am a filmmaker and TV host with decades of experience interviewing controversial figures,” Bannon said. “That’s the only lens through which these private communications should be viewed — a documentary filmmaker working, over a period of time, to secure 50 hours of interviews from a reclusive subject.”
The Bannon spokesperson said the documentary will be released later this year.
