WASHINGTON — In 2021, the New York Put up ran a web-based trailer of an upcoming documentary about Jeffrey Epstein that was produced by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Within the video, Bannon is on digital camera questioning Epstein about “all the depravity you’ve achieved towards younger girls,” amongst different issues.
However that documentary by no means got here out. Now, Jeffrey Epstein’s brother, Mark, is asking for Bannon to indicate him the unseen footage.
“Let me see the videotapes,” he informed NBC Information on Friday. “He’s my brother.”
Mark Epstein mentioned that Bannon, the MAGA media character, labored together with his brother, then a convicted intercourse offender, after the Miami Herald in 2018 chronicled victims’ particulars of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein. The 2 males filmed collectively earlier than Epstein’s arrest by federal authorities in the summertime of 2019.
“He informed me he has like 15 or 16 hours of videotape of Jeff. He was attempting to assist Jeff rehabilitate his popularity,” Mark Epstein mentioned of Bannon. He mentioned his assembly and dialog with Bannon passed off in New York Metropolis after his brother’s demise in jail — in both 2019 or 2020.
“They spent loads of time collectively,” Mark Epstein informed NBC Information.
Bannon shouldn’t be accused of any wrongdoing and was by no means publicly a part of any investigation into Epstein.
Bannon didn’t return a request for remark.
NBC Information considered Bannon getting into Jeffrey Epstein’s New York residence on one event in late 2018.
“After I met with Bannon, he mentioned he needed to place a documentary or one thing collectively. He was attempting to boost some cash for it,” mentioned Mark Epstein, who says he has not heard from Bannon since then.
Enterprise Insider first spoke with Mark Epstein in 2023 about his brother’s demise and Bannon’s obvious documentary footage.
Bannon has a central place within the MAGA motion. A populist who performed a key function in Trump’s political rise, he now hosts the favored “Warfare Room” podcast. He has been advocating for the Trump administration to nominate a particular counsel to look into the Epstein case.
Within the trailer for “The Monsters: Epstein’s Life Among the many International Elite,” revealed by the New York Put up, Jeffrey Epstein mentioned he was a “agency believer and supporter” of the Time’s Up group, which labored to fight sexual harassment. Bannon — who has a background as a Hollywood producer and a documentary filmmaker — can also be seen asking Epstein whether or not he owns two islands, “the Islands of Physician Moreau,” to which Epstein replies, “Right.”
Bannon acknowledged the footage throughout a stay taping of his podcast on July 12 and mentioned that he intends to launch at the very least components of its contents “early subsequent yr.”
“We’re going to launch the movie, the five-part collection subsequent yr — early subsequent yr,” Bannon mentioned in response to a questioner concerning the documentary’s future.
“You’re going to have to call names, and also you’re going to have to know how the elites of the world but in addition the intelligence providers are inextricably linked within the Epstein story,” he added. “That’s the important thing.”
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro this week criticized Bannon for not releasing the footage.
“So, launch the Epstein tapes, Steve,” Shapiro mentioned. “I imply, like, significantly. Extra transparency is gooder. How about that? It looks like it is sensible to me.”
Throughout the taping of his podcast “Warfare Room” on Friday, Bannon referred to as for Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi to hunt the discharge of “all of the sealed proof” associated to the Epstein investigation.
“They need to petition to launch all of the sealed proof, proper? After which there’s way more they will do, however begin with that,” Bannon mentioned.
In 2021, The New York Occasions mentioned that Bannon had confirmed that he had recorded greater than 15 hours of interviews with Jeffrey Epstein. He mentioned the movie was meant as an instance how Epstein’s “perversions and depravity towards younger girls have been a part of a life that was systematically supported, inspired and rewarded by a worldwide institution that dined off his cash and his affect.”
Jeffrey Epstein died in jail in August 2019. The health worker dominated his demise a suicide by hanging. However the circumstances round his demise have lengthy been fodder for a lot of on the far proper, who’ve pushed the conspiracy that “Epstein didn’t kill himself.”
Mark Epstein informed NBC Information that he now has doubts concerning the official rationalization.
“My concern is that my brother was killed,” he mentioned, including, “Increasingly more, I consider he was murdered, and everybody who seems to be in any respect the knowledge that’s on the market on info involves the identical conclusion, appropriate?”
In Could on Fox Enterprise, FBI Director Kash Patel — who stoked Epstein conspiracy theories earlier than becoming a member of the administration — mentioned that the bureau had decided that Epstein took his personal life.
“You realize a suicide once you see one, and that’s what that was,” Patel mentioned on the time.
Mark Epstein referred to as Patel a “f—ing moron” for his evaluation.
He mentioned that Bannon despatched a Dropbox hyperlink of 1 interview clip to Jeffrey Epstein, who, in flip, despatched it to his brother. Mark mentioned that the hyperlink to that footage has expired.
