Documents from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Epstein files, released in early 2026, reveal planning for a May 2019 trip to St. Thomas that included arrangements for Steve Bannon to potentially stay on Jeffrey Epstein’s private Little St. James island in the US Virgin Islands.
Steve Bannon of the War Room has consistently positioned himself and his followers as a loyal Trump ally and the populist mouthpiece of the forgotten American, but his documented private interactions with Jeffrey Epstein – including advisory input on PR and media strategy during 2018–2019, as detailed in Michael Wolff’s book Too Famous (2021) – have prompted questions from some observers about potential contrasts with that public image.
Two months before Jeffrey Epstein’s July 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, the 2026-released files detail travel planning for May 4–6, 2019, listing Stephen Kevin Bannon on itineraries alongside Daniel Andre Fleuette and Dane Rodolfo Valverde. These include booking emails, American Express travel records, and Delta flight arrangements from JFK to STT (St. Thomas). In the email chain, Epstein directed staff to book only two hotel rooms for the companions, stating “Steve will stay on the island” – a clear reference in context to Little St. James, where Epstein was residing.
Excerpts from publicly released DOJ Epstein files.
According to the documents, Steve Bannon’s close collaboration with Jeffrey Epstein from 2018 to mid-2019 included planning a documentary project, with producer Daniel Andre Fleuette coordinating logistics for a proposed May 2019 trip to Little St. James island alongside Bannon and Dane Rodolfo Valverde.
These records demonstrate detailed coordination consistent with Bannon’s acknowledged work on a documentary project involving Epstein at the time.
Bannon has not publicly addressed or denied the specifics of this planned May 2019 itinerary. Communications from 2018–2019 in the files reflect a consistently collaborative and warm tone on topics including the proposed documentary.
The files also show correspondence between Bannon and Epstein on July 6, 2019—the day Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport. Text messages that morning discussed potential filming arrangements for their documentary project, including Bannon asking if filming could occur on the island (Epstein responded affirmatively) and mentions of an in-person meeting (such as breakfast the following morning at Epstein’s New York residence). Later that evening, Epstein sent a final message stating “All canceled,” after which no further communication appeared due to his arrest.
As with the May planning, these July exchanges reflect ongoing collaboration but contain no evidence of any actual travel, meeting, or completion—and include no accusations of wrongdoing against Bannon related to Epstein’s criminal activities.
In earlier statements and reports, he has described his interactions with Epstein primarily as work on a previously unannounced documentary—telling outlets (as confirmed in Michael Wolff’s Too Famous) that he recorded more than 15 hours of interviews to illustrate how Epstein’s “perversions and depravity toward young women were part of a life that was systematically supported, encouraged and rewarded by a global establishment that dined off his money and his influence” (per his own words to The New York Times and related reporting).
The released Epstein files lay bare a disturbingly close and ongoing relationship between Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein, filled with extensive communications, frequent dinners, late-night texts, mutual advice on politics and reputation management, and repeated offers from Epstein to cover travel—private jets, charters, accommodations in Paris, Palm Beach, New York, New Mexico, and beyond—for Bannon and sometimes his team. Epstein positioned himself as Bannon’s personal travel fixer, with the two joking about him being the “most highly paid travel agent in history” (massages explicitly not included in one quip).
These flight booking records (coordinated via Epstein’s staff, referenced in files like those from Data Set 10 and cited in reports) show Bannon was scheduled to travel to Little St. James around early May 2019, along with at least one or two associates (e.g., mentions of “Steve and Dain” in itinerary emails). This ties directly into broader 2018–2019 correspondence where Epstein offered jets, charters, Paris accommodations, and island access as part of their frequent exchanges.
The public DOJ Epstein files (released in tranches through late 2025 and January 2026 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act) do indeed highlight stark contrasts between public personas and private relationships, particularly in the case of high-profile figures like Steve Bannon as the files reveal thousands of texts/emails between Bannon and Epstein during this period, including discussions of politics, media strategy, reputation management for Epstein (amid rising scrutiny), and plans for a documentary. Bannon positioned the project as an exposé (e.g., to “crush the pedo/trafficking narrative” and rebuild Epstein as a philanthropist), with suggestions to film on the island itself. On the day of Epstein’s July 2019 arrest, they were still coordinating filming details, underscoring how intertwined the professional/personal elements had become.
From the May 2019 travel itinerary to the broader correspondence between Bannon and Epstein in these releases, the documents provoke timeless questions about people in the public spotlight: the perceived personas they project versus the private entanglements that actually undermine or contradict the image they push.
