repost - those who watch warroom should ask Bannon about that interview and his ties to Epstein - What happened to that interview he promised to release?
Steve Bannon Thought Jeffrey Epstein Was a Spy
The billionaire may have exaggerated his connections to the world of international espionage, but the tales were enough to pull in a top official in Trumpworld
BY SETH HETTENA
OCTOBER 18, 2021
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/steve-bannon-jeffrey-epstein-spy-trump-1242599/
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IN THE RUN-UP to the 2016 presidential campaign, Jeffrey Epstein told associates something they would never forget: He was advising both Republicans and Democrats.
“He would say things like ‘Trump’s people were here this morning. Hillary’s people were here for lunch,’” a former Epstein associate tells Rolling Stone. Epstein “would claim he was impacting the campaign dramatically.” But he would never name names, and these meetings always took place behind closed doors.
Like many things Epstein said, it may have been a wild exaggeration with a kernel of truth. Years earlier, when Epstein’s influence was at its peak, former President Bill Clinton flew multiple times on his private plane and future President Donald Trump famously described him as a “terrific guy.”
There’s no evidence that Epstein’s connections to either president had survived the 2008 scandal that branded Epstein a sex offender — with one notable exception: Steve Bannon, the chairman of the Trump campaign and a White House strategist, was a frequent visitor to Epstein’s New York mansion.
A former Epstein associate, who spoke to Rolling Stone anonymously for fear of professional reprisal, recalled being introduced to Bannon at Epstein’s Manhattan home. “He was the main person that [Epstein] would brag about to literally everyone. It wasn’t a secret,” this person said. Epstein “loved having this ‘one famous person’ around that he would talk about and introduce to everyone. Almost like [he was] using Bannon to get more people to accept him. That’s my sense.”
Bannon did not respond to several messages left seeking comment. His spokesperson declined to comment on the record.
Although Epstein’s reputation was badly damaged after he spent 13 months in a Florida jail for soliciting sex from a teen, the conviction didn’t stop the flow of wealthy and famous people who flocked to his $77 million Upper East Side mansion. Behind the 15-foot oak front doors, Epstein played host to old friends like Wall Street billionaire Leon Black, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and new ones like Steve Bannon.
According to Too Famous, a new book by journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein and Bannon had been introduced in December 2017. The two men had bonded, in part, “out of a shared incredulity about Donald Trump,” Wolff writes. Bannon liked to compare notes with Epstein and “was often astonished by what Epstein knew.”
Why would the media-savvy Bannon run the risk of associating with a sex offender? Two Republican operatives who worked for Bannon offer an explanation. While reporting on MAGA world, and Bannon in particular, merits an extra degree of caution as it often involves unreliable sources with questionable motives, these independent accounts line up and point to an alluring thesis: Bannon was intrigued by Epstein’s reputed role as middleman for intelligence services in the United States and abroad.
One of the operatives, who spoke anonymously to discuss private conversations, asked Bannon in 2018 about reports that he was spotted entering Epstein’s mansion. Bannon admitted they had met and then said, cryptically, “Have you seen the Turkish currency?” which the employee took to mean that Epstein was somehow involved in the recent collapse of the Turkish lira. “He [Bannon] always insinuated that he was still working with the CIA, even when he was outside the White House, which is completely bullshit,” the former employee said. The Wall Street Journal and New York magazine reported that Epstein claimed to have a currency-trading business that earned tens of millions of dollars.
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