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A section of the privately-funded border wall, seen from Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, rises from the bank of Rio Grande toward Mount Cristo Rey in October 2020. Photo by Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters<\/p>\n
EL PASO, Texas (EL PASO MATTERS<\/a>) \u2014 Right-wing nationalist leader Steve Bannon boasted to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein about starting a private border wall outside El Paso in 2019 in a way that avoided possible court intervention.<\/p>\n In a May 25, 2019, text message exchange with Epstein as the wall was in its second day of construction, Bannon also said he wanted to stay in the background on the effort. Bannon would later face federal criminal charges over the private border wall effort, but was saved from prosecution by a\u00a0pardon from President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0in the last hours of Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n \u201cI also can\u2019t seem like I\u2019m running trumps nose in his own incompetence,\u201d Bannon said in an exchange replete with typos. Bannon served as Trump\u2019s chief strategist for seven months during the president\u2019s first term in 2017, and is now an influential figure in the conservative nationalism movement.<\/p>\n Bannon has not responded to a request for comment from El Paso Matters.<\/p>\n Steve Bannon, left, and Jeffrey Epstein<\/p>\n The text message exchange was among the 3.5 million pages of documents released by the Justice Department on Friday in response to a law passed by Congress last year.<\/p>\n Identifications other than Epstein\u2019s are redacted in the released documents, but Bannon\u2019s ties to the disgraced financier\u00a0have been well documented<\/a>. Details in the exchange match Bannon\u2019s involvement in the private border wall effort that have been detailed in court records.<\/p>\n The exchange includes a discussion of the sudden construction of a privately funded border wall in Sunland Park, New Mexico, just outside the El Paso city limits over Memorial Day weekend in 2019.<\/p>\n The private wall was built as Trump struggled to expand government barriers in the El Paso region in his first term.<\/p>\n \u201cMy wall dude \u2014 New Mexico \u2013 right outside El Paso \u2014 in total secret \u2014 we go on fox and friends on Monday to release,\u201d Bannon said in the message to Epstein on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in 2019.<\/p>\n Epstein asked Bannon if he was going to New Mexico as part of the project unveiling.<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t ; have kobach and kolfage on site \u2014 I\u2019m the chairman but I push those 2 plus the construction guy as national heroes \u2014 we started Memorial Day Friday after the courts closed\u2013 and will be done Monday @ noon,\u201d Bannon said.<\/p>\n Epstein-Bannon-border-wall<\/a>Download<\/a><\/p>\n He was referring to Kris Kobach, a Kansas politician, and Brian Kolfage, the founder of the private wall effort. Kobach\u00a0appeared on \u201cFox and Friends\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to discuss the project May 27, 2019, which was Memorial Day. He was interviewed by Pete Hegseth, now secretary of defense.<\/p>\n Kolfage had a\u00a0news conference at the construction site\u00a0<\/a>of the private wall May 30, five days after the exchange between Bannon and Epstein.<\/p>\n![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2640946cc30688bbd38a3e1ffaaadc88.jpeg\"\/)
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