‘A war room’: Inside Epstein’s campaign to influence public opinion
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2026 3:00 am
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... 59966.html
In the winter of 2018, Jeffrey Epstein was afraid his world was crashing down.
The disgraced financier had spent millions of dollars over the previous decade rehabilitating his image after pleading guilty to solicitation charges in a Florida state court in 2008.
But a 2018 Miami Herald investigation documenting his crimes — and how he and his high-powered legal team evaded more serious charges — had led to renewed public outcry and political pressure to re-investigate him.
Epstein turned to a group of some of his closest confidants to help him counter the public narrative that was forming against him.
The advisors included former Obama White House deputy counsel Kathyrn Ruemmler; far-right provocateur Steve Bannon; former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr; journalist Michael Wolff; and left-wing academic Noam Chomsky.
The goal, from Bannon’s perspective, was to: “[C]rush the pedo/trafficking narrative; then rebuild your image as philanthropist.”