Documents released by the Department of Justice showed the inner workings of how one close ally of President Donald Trump planned to help rehabilitate the image of Jeffrey Epstein after he was convicted of sex crimes.
The recently released documents showed how MAGA influencer Steve Bannon's relationship grew closer with Epstein up until just days before he was arrested again for sex trafficking.
"First we need to push back on the lies; then crush the pedo/trafficking narrative; then rebuild your image as philanthropist," Bannon told Epstein in April of 2019.
A month later, Bannon was reportedly planning a trip to Epstein's island, where many of his alleged sex crimes occurred, according to documents obtained by Business Insider's Jacob Shamsian.
Bannon and his associates were expected to fly to the U.S. Virgin Islands on May 4, 2019, via Delta Airlines, as indicated by an e-ticket stub issued by the airline.
"Have daphne arrange only 2 rooms," Epstein wrote in an email to his assistant. "Steve will stay on island."
It was not immediately clear if Bannon made the trip.
"I am a filmmaker and TV host with decades of experience interviewing controversial figures," Bannon told The New York Times recently. "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."
Epstein was arrested just months later in July of that year.
