Epstein Files Reveal Bannon Met Le Pen's Circle to Refinance Russian-Backed Party as Trump Called Her Conviction a 'Witch Hunt'

Newly released Epstein files contain a 2018 email describing Steve Bannon meeting with French far-right figures, including Marine Le Pen's husband, to discuss refinancing the National Front party "because apparently a good part of their money comes from Russia." The revelation lands as Le Pen fights her appeal against a conviction for embezzling EU Parliament funds, and nine months after Donald Trump called that conviction a "Witch Hunt."

The email, dated July 12, 2018, was sent by Jeffrey Epstein to journalist Michael Wolff. It describes Wolff's account of seeing Bannon in London, where the former Trump strategist was meeting with French right-wing figures about the party's finances and their dependence on Russian money. The documents were part of a massive trove of over three million pages released by the US Department of Justice on January 30, 2026.

The Money Trail

The Russian financing referenced in the email is not new. In September 2014, Le Pen's National Front signed a 9.4 million euro loan with the First Czech-Russian Bank in Moscow. The bank's owner, Roman Popov, had worked for Gennady Timchenko, a close Putin ally. The loan was brokered by Alexander Babakov, a Russian nationalist lawmaker who has since been placed under EU sanctions.

When the bank collapsed, the debt passed through a chain of obscure entities before landing with Aviazapchast, a Russian aviation parts supplier that sued to recover over 10 million dollars. The party says the loan was fully repaid in 2023.

A 2023 French parliamentary report went further, concluding in a 218-page investigation that Le Pen's party had served as a "relay" and "communication channel" for Russian power, according to France24. The report documented frequent contacts between party officials and Russian government figures dating back to 2011.

What the Epstein files add is a third dimension: an American intermediary. Bannon, who founded a Brussels-based organization called "The Movement" in 2018 to unite European far-right parties, was apparently working to help resolve the National Front's Russian financing problem. Bannon exchanged hundreds of text messages with Epstein and received gifts including Hermes Apple watches, according to Jacobin.

Trump's Intervention

On April 3, 2025, three days after Le Pen was convicted and banned from running for office for five years, Trump posted on Truth Social calling her verdict a "Witch Hunt" and demanding France "FREE MARINE LE PEN." Elon Musk echoed the message.

Le Pen had been convicted of embezzling EU Parliament funds by hiring people as parliamentary assistants who actually worked for her party between 2004 and 2016. The case was originally referred to OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud office, by then-European Parliament President Martin Schulz in 2015. She was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended, a 100,000 euro fine, and ordered to pay 2.9 million euros in damages.

Her appeal trial opened in Paris on January 13, 2026, with a ruling expected by summer. If upheld, the five-year election ban would end her bid for the 2027 French presidential election.

The Reaction

The Epstein revelation has drawn intense attention on social media, with the initial post by @PamphletsY accumulating 1.6 million views, over 9,000 reposts, and 42,000 likes.

German academic @DrDobberstein wrote that the files make it "definitively clear" that a network connecting American and European far-right movements with Russia, Silicon Valley, and the crypto industry exists, with the goal of destroying the EU. The post gathered 26,000 views.

Italian journalist @GiovaQuez noted that the Bannon-Epstein exchanges reveal not only the internationalist design behind European far-right sovereignty movements, but also concrete involvement in fundraising for both Salvini and Le Pen. That post reached 70,000 views.

@OxfordFarr66929 quoted Trump's "FREE MARINE LE PEN" statement alongside the Epstein email, writing simply: "This makes SO much sense now." The post received 63,000 views and 2,300 likes.

X's AI chatbot Grok appeared in replies attempting to downplay the connection, stating the claim "isn't supported by the released Epstein files from 2025." The email in question is from the January 2026 release, not the 2025 batch.

What a Federal EU Would Change

The Le Pen case illustrates both the strengths and gaps of current EU structures. The institutions worked: OLAF investigated, French courts convicted, and the parliamentary report documented Russian interference. But the response was fragmented across national jurisdictions and took years.

A proper European Federation would have unified counter-intelligence capabilities to detect foreign financing of political parties across all member states, not just within one country's borders at a time. Common anti-corruption standards, backed by federal enforcement, would close the gaps that allowed Russian money to flow through Czech, Russian, and French entities before anyone raised an alarm.

This matters beyond France. As the Carnegie Endowment has documented, Trump's second term has recast the European radical right as a vanguard of a transnational movement. When a US president pressures European judicial independence on behalf of a politician funded by Moscow, the threat is not to one country but to all of them.

The EU has already shown it can project soft power that shapes global standards. Its institutions have proven their oversight mechanisms work, even when politically inconvenient. And the pattern of platform censorship around sensitive documents shows why Europeans cannot rely on American-owned platforms to protect their democratic debate.

The current EU caught the Le Pen embezzlement. A federal EU would be equipped to address the full network: the Russian money, the American intermediaries, and the coordinated pressure campaigns designed to make accountability look like persecution.