A newly released videotaped interview has added another disturbing layer to the already grotesque public record of Jeffrey Epstein, revealing the convicted pedophile casually referring to himself as a “Tier One” sexual predator while attempting to rationalize his conduct and launder his reputation through abstract moral arguments.
The footage, released Friday by the Justice Department, captures a rambling exchange between Epstein and former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon, who conducted the interview in the months leading up to Epstein’s 2019 arrest.
In the video, Epstein appears eager to categorize and minimize his own depravity. Responding to off-camera questions from Bannon, he claimed that “Tier One” represented the “lowest” level of sexual perversion, an assertion that starkly contrasts with the reality of his crimes and the testimony of dozens of victims.
The exchange explains Epstein’s persistent fixation on hierarchies, classifications, and intellectualized defenses, even when discussing acts that placed him among the most notorious sex offenders in modern history.
Bannon pressed Epstein on the origins of his wealth, asking whether it was derived from “dirty money.” Epstein flatly denied the suggestion, insisting that he earned his fortune legitimately.
When Bannon countered that Epstein had advised “the worst people in the world,” Epstein retreated into moral abstraction, dismissing ethics as “complicated” before pivoting to his charitable giving, particularly donations to polio vaccination efforts in the developing world. The implication was clear: that philanthropy could offset, or at least complicate, moral judgment of his actions.
The exchange grew more unsettling as Epstein suggested that impoverished parents would accept money from anyone—even “the devil himself”—if it meant saving their children’s lives. When Bannon directly asked whether Epstein viewed himself as that devil, Epstein replied with chilling self-awareness: “No, but I have a good mirror.” The remark, delivered without visible irony, encapsulated the narcissism and moral detachment that defined Epstein’s public and private behavior.
While the exact date of the interview remains unclear, Epstein’s appearance suggests it occurred shortly before his July 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges. At the time, Bannon was reportedly attempting to assist Epstein in rehabilitating his public image, a project that collapsed when Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019.
The interview is one of roughly 2,000 videos released alongside millions of pages of documents and images under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Trump last November.
