Hem
Steve Bannon. (Curtis Means / AP)

Sms avslöjar: Epstein coachade Bannon inför tv-framträdande 2018

Sexbrottslingen Jeffrey Epstein tycks ha agerat som en slags rådgivare bakom kulisserna åt Donald Trumps tidigare strateg, Magaprofilen Steve Bannon, skriver The Guardian.

USA:s representanthus har offentliggjort en sms-konversation mellan Epstein och Bannon som ägde rum mellan den 17 och 23 augusti 2018, där Epstein tycks coacha Bannon inför bland annat ett tv-framträdande.

Epsteins råd inkluderade tips på kameravinklar och konkreta svar på kritik mot Trumps skattesänkningar.

Det är oklart vilken tv-sändning Bannon skulle medverka i, men The Guardian skriver att datumet matchar med ett framträdande Bannon gjorde i MSNBC den 17 augusti 2018.

Det är sedan tidigare känt att Bannon förekommer i de så kallade Epsteindokumenten, men inte på vilket sätt.

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Steve Bannon
Wikipedia (en)
Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, pundit and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist for the first seven months of President Donald Trump's first administration before Trump fired him. He is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News. Since 2019, Bannon has hosted the War Room podcast. Bannon was an officer in the United States Navy between 1977 and 1983, then worked for two years at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. In 1993, he became acting director of the research project Biosphere 2. He was an executive producer on 18 Hollywood films from 1991 to 2016. In 2007, he co-founded Breitbart News, a website which he described in 2016 as "the platform for the alt-right". In the mid-2010s, Bannon was a vice president of Cambridge Analytica, a firm that collected data on millions of Facebook users, without their informed consent, for use in Trump’s campaign and Brexit, in some cases spreading fake news. Later knowledge of this data breach prompted the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. In 2016, Bannon became the chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and was appointed chief strategist and senior counselor to the president following Trump's election. As chief strategist, Bannon urged Trump toward an anti-establishment platform and clashed frequently with other Republicans as well as fellow staff members Reince Priebus and Jared Kushner. He left eight months later and rejoined Breitbart. In 2018, after his criticism of Trump's children was reported in Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury, he was disavowed by Trump and left Breitbart. After leaving the White House, Bannon opposed the Republican Party establishment and supported insurgent candidates in Republican primary elections. Bannon's reputation as a strategist was questioned when former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore, despite Bannon's support, lost the 2017 United States Senate election in Alabama. Bannon had declared his intention to become "the infrastructure, globally, for the global populist movement". Accordingly, he has supported national populist conservative political movements around the world, including creating a network of far-right groups in Europe. In 2020, Bannon and others were arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering connected to the We Build the Wall fundraising campaign. According to the indictment, the defendants promised contributions would go to building a U.S.–Mexico border wall, but instead enriched themselves. Bannon pleaded not guilty. Trump pardoned Bannon, sparing him from a federal trial, but did not pardon his codefendants. Federal pardons do not cover state offenses, and in 2022, Bannon was charged in New York state court with fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy in connection with the campaign. In February 2025, Bannon pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to three years of conditional discharge. Bannon refused to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 House select committee, so was indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges of contempt of Congress. In July 2022, he was convicted and sentenced to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine. After losing his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Bannon surrendered to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, where he was imprisoned from July to October 2024.

Jeffrey Epstein-fallet – detta har hänt

2019, juli: Jeffrey Epstein åtalas för trafficking av minderåriga, flera högt uppsatta profiler kopplas till fallet. Arbetsmarknadsminister Acosta avgår efter kritik om tidigare förlikning.

2019, augusti: Jeffrey Epstein hittas död i häktet i New York. Justitieminister Barr beordrar utredning, flera vakter stängs av och myndighetschef sparkas efter brister i övervakningen.

2019, november: Prins Andrew tar paus från sina kungliga uppdrag efter kritiserad intervju om vänskapen med Epstein. Brittiska hovet pressar ABC att stoppa intervju om anklagelserna.

2019, december: FBI utreder Ghislaine Maxwell för inblandning i Epsteins sexbrott. Virginia Giuffre upprepar anklagelser mot prins Andrew i BBC-intervju.

2020, juli: Ghislaine Maxwell grips av FBI, åtalas för att ha rekryterat minderåriga till Epstein. Åklagare välkomnar om prins Andrew vittnar om sina kontakter med Epstein och Maxwell.

2021, december: Ghislaine Maxwell döms skyldig för att ha hjälpt Epstein begå sexuella övergrepp mot minderåriga. Juryn anser att hon rekryterat och groomat fyra tonåringar under tio år.

2022, januari: Prins Andrew avsäger sig militära titlar och kungliga beskyddarskap efter domstolsbesked om fortsatt rättsprocess. Han tar bort sina sociala medier-konton.

2025, juli: Donald Trump pressas att offentliggöra Epstein-utredningen. Wall Street Journal publicerar brev där Trump påstås ha skickat teckning till Epstein, vilket Trump förnekar.

2025, augusti: FBI maskerar Trumps namn i Epsteindokument. Ghislaine Maxwell flyttas till nytt fängelse och förhörs av justitiedepartementet, förnekar kundlista och kallar Trump gentleman.

2025, september: USA:s kongress offentliggör över 33 000 Epstein-dokument, endast tre procent innehåller ny information. Brittiske ambassadören Peter Mandelson sparkas för vänskap med Epstein.

2025, oktober: Prins Andrew fråntas prinstitel och vräks från Royal Lodge efter nya avslöjanden och utgivning av Virginia Giuffres memoarer. Kung Charles agerande beskrivs som historiskt.

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