DOJ Files Show Bannon Told Epstein He Planned to 'Bring Down' Pope Francis

Overview

• The Justice Department’s 2026 release of Epstein case records exposed private Bannon–Epstein exchanges about undermining Pope Francis.
• In a June 2019 message, Bannon wrote, “I’ll bring down Pope Francis,” listing the Clintons, Xi and the European Union as targets.
• The messages show Bannon sought a film adaptation of Frédéric Martel’s In the Closet of the Vatican with Epstein as executive producer; Martel says rights blocked any deal and that Bannon aimed to instrumentalize the book.
• The files reference a planned political academy in an Italian monastery tied to Bannon allies that encountered legal disputes and government scrutiny and did not advance.
• Vatican commentators condemned the tactics as politicizing spiritual authority, Bannon has not publicly refuted the messages, and Francis was succeeded in 2025 by Pope Leão 14.