Disclosed DOJ files show Steve Bannon sought Jeffrey Epstein’s financial and strategic support in 2019 to orchestrate a campaign intended to “take down” Pope Francis and his globalist worldview.
Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser to US President Donald Trump, discussed opposition strategies with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, with Bannon saying he hoped to “take down” the pontiff, according to newly released files from the US…
— CNN (@CNN) February 14, 2026
Newly released Department of Justice files reveal that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon collaborated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to undermine Pope Francis. In a June 2019 message, Bannon declared his intent to “take down” the pontiff, whom he viewed as a globalist obstacle to his nationalist-populist agenda. Bannon sought to “instrumentalize” the Vatican’s internal politics to fuel a “sovereigntist” revolution.
The documents expose Bannon’s plan to adapt the controversial book In the Closet of the Vatican into a film, proposing Epstein as executive producer. Bannon aimed to use the exposé on clerical hypocrisy to embarrass the Church leadership and “purify” the institution. While the film was never made, the correspondence highlights a desperate attempt to fuse spiritual authority with political power for strategic ends.
Interactions between the pair continued even after Epstein’s 2008 sex offense conviction, with Epstein often responding with provocative literary references. In one exchange, Epstein quoted John Milton’s Paradise Lost, noting, “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.” Vatican officials have condemned the plot, describing it as a failed attempt to transform faith into a political weapon against a Pope who championing migrants and environmental justice.