Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, visited Jeffrey Epstein at the convicted pedophile’s Paris apartment in the fall of 2018, an ex-butler who worked at Epstein’s posh digs claims.
The extraordinary revelation comes just days after French investigators swooped down on the $8 million residence near the Arc de Triomphe, following allegations that Epstein sexually abused underage girls there.
The Paris probe was launched after the billionaire financier hanged himself in a New York City prison cell in August.
Epstein had been arrested a month earlier at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport as he stepped off his private jet from Paris, and hit with multiple charges including sex trafficking girls as young as 14.
Now as the investigation intensifies, there are reports that Epstein had entertained a number of global movers and shakers during his stays in Paris, including Bannon, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, British royal Prince Andrew and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda.
One of Epstein’s former butlers, identified only as “Gabriel,” told the online news service FranceInfo: “I served crowned heads, diplomats, businessmen and politicians … I was even [Bannon’s] driver in Paris.”
A spokesman for Bannon insisted to FranceInfo that Bannon never stayed Epstein’s posh pad, but stayed at the $1,000-a-night Bristol Hotel by the Champs-Elysees. But there was no denial of meetings between Bannon and Epstein.
It’s apparently not Bannon’s only meet-up with Epstein.
Last year, The New York Post reported that Bannon secretly met with Epstein at the financier’s East 71st Street townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in August 2018.
According to the report, Bannon was seen exiting his SUV and entering sprawling 21,000-square-foot home.
Bannon has not been accused of any wrongdoing and it is not known what was discussed at the secret powwows.
Bill Gates’ spokesperson denied any “business or personal relationship” with Epstein.
Last summer, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart recounted in The New York Times how Epstein once invited him to dinner at his Manhattan home with Bannon and bestselling political author Michael Wolff. Stewart declined the offer and Bannon later said he didn’t attend.
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