Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser under US President Donald Trump, discussed opposition strategies with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, who died in 2025.
Bannon even said he hoped to “overthrow” the pontiff, according to
Messages exchanged between the two in 2019, revealed in , show that Bannon courted the late tycoon in his attempts to undermine the pontiff after leaving the first Trump administration.
The former advisor was extremely critical of Francisco, whom he considered an opponent of his “sovereignist” vision, a strand of nationalist populism that swept Europe in 2018 and 2019.
Documents released by the Justice Department appear to show that Epstein was helping Bannon build his movement.
“Let’s take down (Pope) Francis,” Steve Bannon wrote to Jeffrey Epstein in June 2019. “The Clintons, Xi, Francis, the European Union – come on, brother.”
Pope Francis represented a significant obstacle to the nationalist populism championed by Bannon.
In 2018, he described Francis to The Spectator as “despicable”, accusing him of siding with “globalist elites” and, according to “SourceMaterial”, he urged Matteo Salvini, then deputy prime minister of Italy, to “attack” the pontiff.
In turn, Salvini used Christian iconography (study, description and classification of images, symbols and artistic themes) and language in his anti-immigration agenda.
Rome and the Vatican were important to Bannon. He established a bureau in Rome when he ran Breitbart News and was involved in the attempt to create a “gladiator school” for political training aimed at defending Judeo-Christian values, not far from the Eternal City.
Francis, meanwhile, represented a counterweight to the view by vehemently criticizing nationalism and making the defense of migrants a hallmark of his pontificate.
Bannon tries to compromise the image of Pope Francis
Recently released US Department of Justice files reveal that Bannon exchanged messages with Epstein on several occasions in an attempt to undermine the late pope’s image.
In his messages with Epstein, Bannon references “In the Vatican Closet,” a 2019 book by French journalist Frédéric Martel that exposed secrecy and hypocrisy in the highest echelons of the Church.
Martel caused controversy with his book by claiming that 80% of the clergy working at the Vatican are gay, and by exploring how they keep their sexuality secret.
The issue of homosexuality in the Church has been a point of contention for some conservatives, who see it as evidence of a deeper systemic crisis in the Church, some linking it to
Most experts and researchers consider any association between sexual orientation and abuse to be scientifically inaccurate.
Bannon expressed interest in turning Martel’s book into a film after meeting with the author at a five-star hotel in Paris.
In the messages, the former advisor appears to suggest that Epstein could be the film’s executive producer. “You are now the executive producer of ‘ITCOTV’ (In the Vatican Closet),” Bannon wrote.
It is unclear how serious Bannon’s proposal to Epstein was, and in the exchange, the mogul does not mention the offer and asks about Bannon filming Noam Chomsky, the philosopher and public intellectual. ,
French journalist Frédéric Martel said that when he met with Bannon at the Hotel Le Bristol, he informed him that he could not agree to any deal for the film as his publishers owned the rights and had already reached a contract with another company.
He told the CNN who believes the former White House counselor wanted to “instrumentalize” the book in his efforts against Pope Francis.
Epstein’s files show that on April 1, 2019, the mogul emailed himself “in the Vatican closet” and later sent Bannon an article titled “Pope Francis or Steve Bannon? Catholics need to choose,” to which Bannon responded “easy choice.”
Austen Ivereigh, the late pope’s biographer, said Steve Bannon thought he could use Martel’s book to embarrass and harm the pontiff, while claiming to “purify” the Church. “I think he misjudged the nature of the book – and of Pope Francis,” Ivereigh told CNN.
However, as is now known, it appears that Bannon was messaging Epstein several years after his 2008 conviction for child sex crimes and shortly before his arrest for
Father Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official who collaborated closely with Francis, told CNN that Bannon’s messages show a desire to merge “spiritual authority with political power for strategic ends.”
Spadaro explained that Francis resisted this connection: “What these messages reveal is not merely hostility toward a pontiff, but a deeper attempt to weaponize faith – precisely the temptation he sought to disarm.”
Investigations in the Vatican
The period between 2018 and 2019 was marked by intense opposition to Francis, which culminated in the release, in August 2018, of a dossier by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former apostolic nuncio to the USA, accusing him of negligence in combating abuse committed by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
A Vatican investigation later cleared Francis.
But Steve Bannon’s desire to turn Martel’s book into a film has caused him to lose an ally in the Vatican. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a prominent conservative critic of Francis, declared: “I am in no way in favor of the book being adapted into a film.”
Burke was also portrayed in an unflattering light in Martel’s book. The break between Burke and Bannon occurred when he cut ties with Dignitatis Humanae, a conservative institute founded by Benjamin Harnwell, a British political advisor and close associate of the former secretary, based in Italy.
Harnwell had been working with Steve Bannon to create an academy to train nationalist-populist leaders in an 800-year-old ancient monastery called “Certosa di Trisulti” in the province of Frosinone, 75 kilometers southeast of Rome.
Benjamin Harnwell is involved in a legal battle with the Italian Ministry of Culture over the monastery’s conversion, with a hearing scheduled for February 11.
In 2019, the Italian government revoked the monastery’s lease granted to Harnwell’s institute, citing irregularities, default and false statements on Harnwell’s part. In 2024, however, a Roman court cleared him, and he seeks to get his contract back.
Epstein’s files also reveal that Bannon forwarded an email to the tycoon in July 2018 with an article from the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” titled “Bannon the European: He is opening the populist stronghold in Brussels”. Bannon was forwarding an English translation of the article, which had originally been sent by Harnwell.
Harnwell said CNN that Epstein “was not involved with Trisulti.”
In other documents, Jeffrey Epstein jokes with his brother, Mark, about inviting Pope Francis to his residence for a “massage” during the papal visit to the U.S. in 2015. Three years later, he texts Bannon saying he is trying to “arrange a trip for the pontiff to the Middle East,” adding “title: tolerance.”
When Steve Bannon shares with Epstein an article about the Vatican condemning “populist nationalism,” the mogul cites John Milton’s biblical poem “Paradise Lost,” in which Satan is cast out of heaven.
“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,” Epstein tells Bannon.
A CNN reached out to a representative for Bannon for comment. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing regarding Epstein or any allegations of sexual misconduct.
