Steve Bannon assured the convicted sex offender he was coming across great.

“You are committed, you are not threatening, you are natural, you are friendly,” the far-right provocateur told 66-year-old financier Jeffrey Epstein. “You don’t look scary at all, you’re a likeable character.”

This exchange took place in 2019, the same year that Epstein died by suicide on Rikers Island. When it came to light, Bannon admitted to recording more than 15 hours of footage with Epstein for a documentary he had never previously announced. The former adviser to Donald Trump said his intention was not what it appeared to be – namely, to prepare Epstein for a series of interviews after he was arrested on human trafficking charges – but rather to reveal his interview subject.

Epstein's “perversions and depravities toward young women were part of a life that was systematically supported, encouraged and rewarded by a global establishment that devoured his money and influence,” Bannon told The New York Times.

Bannon never released this documentary. Perhaps making matters worse is that Bannon's former boss himself was part of Epstein's elite circle and is now accused of attacking a woman who was handed over to him by the late sex offender in Trump Tower as part of an alleged “twisted game.”

Stacey Williams, a former model, said in an interview with The Guardian on Wednesday that she first met Trump in 1992 when Epstein, whom she briefly dated, introduced him at a Christmas party.

“It became very clear at that time that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together,” Williams told the outlet.

It also quickly became clear that the two men had the same attitude towards women.

During a subsequent visit with Epstein to Trump Tower in early 1993, Williams said the former president sexually abused her. Trump almost immediately began groping her “all over my breasts,” she told the Guardian, as well as her waist and buttocks. Williams described himself as frozen and “deeply confused” by the confusion over what was happening, and said it appeared as if Trump and Epstein were smiling at each other during the incident.

A Trump spokesman denied that such an attack occurred and described Williams' claims as “clearly false.” But two of Williams' friends told the Guardian that she had told them about the alleged incident. She also provided the outlet with a postcard from Mar-a-Lago that was allegedly sent to her later in 1993 and signed by Trump: “Stacey – your second home. I love Donald.”

When Epstein died by suicide after his arrest in 2019, conspiracy theories flourished, particularly on the far right, highlighting the financier's ties to the likes of former President Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, both of whom were public before his arrest arrests linked to Epstein (neither has been credibly accused of wrongdoing). Those theories have typically ignored any connection to Trump, whose Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta previously negotiated a deal with Epstein as U.S. attorney that allowed him to avoid federal sex trafficking charges.

On the right, Epstein continues to be used to tar those on the left. In a post this week on

But the only candidate in the 2024 presidential race who has any real connection to the deceased pedophile is the Republican nominee.

“I have known Jeff for 15 years. “Great guy,” Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. “It's a lot of fun to be with him. It’s even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

As the Washington Post reported, there is “clear evidence” linking Trump to the disgraced financier. “Epstein visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and posed for photos with Trump there in 1997 and 2000,” the post said. Additionally, “Epstein’s extensive personal address book — which was made public by an Epstein associate in 2009 — contained 14 phone numbers for Trump, his wife Melania and his associates, according to media reports.”

Trump has since distanced himself from Epstein and denied any knowledge of his misconduct, which included raping and trafficking numerous young girls. But the former president himself has been blamed for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carrol, and dozens of other women “have accused Trump of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s,” The 19th reported.

On Wednesday, Trump's campaign accused his latest accuser of lying and described her as a Democratic activist. Williams recently told her story on a Zoom call for a group called Survivors for Kamala, which is supporting Vice President Harris' bid for the White House.

Over the summer, when asked by a reporter, Trump said he might release files related to Epstein's case if he won in November. But then he pushed back, suggesting the files might contain damning but false allegations.

“You don’t want to impact people’s lives if there’s fake stuff in there,” he said, “because there’s a lot of fake stuff all over the world.”