Steve Bannon has demanded that President Donald Trump hire a special prosecutor to probe the Epstein files amid a flurry of criticism.
His call comes after the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed in a leaked memo that no “client list” exists for accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and that the billionaire financier died by suicide, rather than being murdered, in his New York prison cell in August 2019—both the subject of widespread conspiracy theories among Trump’s MAGA base.
Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, was caught up in the scandal when Elon Musk claimed he appeared in the Epstein files. He has denied this, as has the disgraced financier’s brother, Mark Epstein.
Speaking to British broadsheet The Telegraph, Bannon said Attorney General Pam Bondi should step aside and let an independent investigator get to the bottom of the case.
“The attorney general, I believe, needs to go to the court and ask for a complete unsealing of all the files–and answer Tom Fitton’s Judicial Watch lawsuit and release of all the documents,” he said.
Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group, has launched a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to obtain records regarding Epstein and his so-called “client list.” The nonprofit provided an update on Monday, saying that the DOJ and the FBI have said they “continue to search for and review records.”
This, however, contradicts the leaked memo—first reported on by Axios on Sunday—that the case is essentially closed.
Author Michael Wolff, meanwhile, told the Daily Beast Podcast that “Bannon and Epstein were very close” and that it was Bannon who informed Wolff of Epstein’s arrest in August 2019.
“Bannon was very concerned about [the arrest],” he told the podcast’s host, Joanna Coles, chief creative and content officer at the Daily Beast.
The Trump biographer also recounted the first time the two men met—an event he witnessed firsthand.
“During the 2016 [presidential] campaign, you were the only person I was afraid of,” Bannon told the financier, according to Wolff.
“Meaning that he had stories about Donald Trump, that should they surface,” Coles remarked.
Wolff agreed, saying that Bannon thought Epstein was “the one person who had the goods” on Trump.
Asked about the significance of the DOJ suggesting there’s nothing further to the case, the author responded that the attorney general merely “takes orders” from the president.
He claimed she was told that, when she took the job, she would “carry water for the president of the United States.” “You work for him,” she was told, according to Wolff.
Bondi has also been slammed for the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files.
“It is sitting on my desk to be reviewed,” she said on Fox News in February.
Bondi orchestrated the much-publicized release of files related to Epstein, giving them directly to right-wing influencers. She said on Fox News that the files were sure to “make you sick.”
When the released files featured no bombshells and contained information that had previously been released, high-profile MAGA figures began to call for her head.
At a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Bondi explained her comments on Fox News.
“In February, I did an interview on Fox that is getting a lot of attention because I was asked a question about the client list,” Bondi explained. “My response was, ‘It is sitting on my desk to be reviewed,’ meaning the files, along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That is what I meant by that.”
Trump angrily intervened when Bondi was asked about Epstein, attempting to shut down the question and brush the issue under the rug.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump asked. “This guy’s been talked about for years. … We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”
The Daily Best has reached out to the White House for comment.
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