Bannon Text to Epstein: Help Me 'Take Down' the Pope

Newly disclosed Justice Department records show Steve Bannon turned to Jeffrey Epstein as he tried to rally opposition to Pope Francis—even boasting in one 2019 message that he would "take down" the pope. The communications depict the onetime Trump White House strategist courting the convicted sex offender as an ally in his broader nationalist-populist campaign, per CNN. Bannon viewed Francis as a major obstacle to that vision, clashing with the pontiff's sharp critiques of nationalism and emphasis on defending migrants.

"Will take down [Pope] Francis," Bannon wrote to Epstein in June 2019. "The Clintons, Xi, Francis, EU—come on brother." The messages show Bannon exploring ways to use a controversial 2019 book, In the Closet of the Vatican, by French journalist Frederic Martel, against Francis. After meeting Martel in Paris, Bannon floated the idea of turning the book into a film and told Epstein he could be its executive producer, texts indicate. "He was very enthusiastic," Martel says of Bannon to the National Catholic Reporter. He added to CNN that he refused any deal, saying his publisher already held the film rights and that he believed Bannon wanted to weaponize the book. A papal biographer, Austen Ivereigh, said Bannon misread both the book and Francis, arguing that Bannon's goal was to embarrass the pope under the guise of trying to "purify" the church.

Epstein—convicted in 2008 for child sex offenses, then arrested again in 2019 on sex trafficking charges—also joked in a separate message with his brother, Mark, about inviting Francis for a "massage" and quoted Paradise Lost to Bannon: "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven." He also at one point wrote to Bannon, using what the AP calls "untidy grammar": "donalds head would explode if he knew you were now buds with the guy who on monday will decide the nobel peace prize." Vatican ally Rev. Antonio Spadaro said the messages illustrate an effort on Bannon's part to merge "spiritual authority with political power for strategic ends," something he said Francis consistently resisted, per CNN. Bannon hasn't commented.