🔗 Share this article

In November 2018, Steve Bannon, formerly a top aide to Donald Trump, visited the UK to deliver a address at the Oxford Union.

The event was interrupted by hundreds of demonstrators, and Bannon, who was due to board a flight that evening, informed Jeffrey Epstein in an email: "Protesters slowed down my talk I doubt I can catch the plane we r enroute to the airport".

Epstein replied: "There. Is a gulf air departing at 950 with a layover in Bahrain". Bannon replied: "You are an amazing assistant".

These messages were released on Wednesday together with more than 20,000 pages from the estate of Epstein, the late financier convicted of sex crimes.

The release by the House oversight committee contains an text conversation where Bannon's identity is withheld. Media outlets has been able to confirm his identity by matching the dates, events, and places mentioned.

For example, Epstein discusses arranging a plane from Scotland for the unnamed individual in the messages, and offers praise their "address at Oxford". Bannon participated in the Edinburgh conference on November 14, and delivered the speech at the Oxford on November 16.

Bannon, who is not accused of any misconduct, declined to comment on the request for comment.

'I'll make sure you're well looked after'

Bannon served as the president's key aides in the lead-up to the 2016 election and in the early days of his first administration, but resigned from the administration in 2017.

He has acknowledged he was producing a film about Epstein before his passing and allegedly has around 15 hours of footage. In a recording of his podcast recently, he said: "We're going to publish the series, the five-part series, in the coming year - early next year."

But the newly released documents suggest Bannon's connection with Epstein went further than being his biographer, with the disgraced financier at times appearing to serve like a personal assistant.

A short time before the conversation in which Epstein seemed to arranged a private plane for Bannon, Epstein remarked: "how does it feel to have the highest-paid travel agent in the world ".

Bannon thanked him: "You are quite capable assistant", to which Epstein responded "Therapies. Not Included".

Discussing a visit to "Abu Dhabi" in a separate text, Epstein assured Bannon: "I'll make sure you're taken care of."

UK Politics Discussed in Messages

The published messages also reveal Bannon and Epstein talking about British political matters in 2018.

Earlier on the same day his speech at the Oxford Union, Bannon messaged Epstein: "I've gotten pulled into the EU exit thing this day with Farage, Boris and Rees Mogg."

Then, in what seems like a reference to Theresa May, the struggling British leader at the period, he added: "They are trying to move on. May soon…"

Epstein advised Bannon: "I think staying as much as you can in the UK. Ideal- so people get the dedication of your follow-up."

Shortly after, Epstein inquired: "Will Theresa may remain in power". Bannon answered: "I don't see how BUT the guys here have little courage" and noted "Boris ; Michael Gove; Rees Mogg; Davis - someone has to take charge".

Theresa May was finally removed in May 2019 after surviving two votes of lack of support in December 2018.

A spokesman for the political party informed the BBC: "Farage has never been in a meeting with Bannon, Jacob Rees Mogg and Johnson." And there is no evidence such a meeting occurred.

The Congress will vote soon on whether the Department of Justice should make public all its records related to its investigation into Epstein, who passed away in jail in that year.

Attention in Epstein's associations with powerful figures was reignited recently after the publication of more than 20,000 pages from his estate.

Some of those mentioned the former president, who has repeatedly rejected any impropriety. The president was a acquaintance of Epstein's for a long time, but says they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested.