Epstein Data Wiki

Mike Pompeo

Properties2
tagsperson, united-states, politician, secretary-of-state, cia
aliasesMichael R. Pompeo, Michael Richard Pompeo

12 min read

BornDecember 30, 1963, Orange, California1
OfficesU.S. Representative, Kansas’s 4th district, 2011–2017; Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 2017–2018; Secretary of State, 2018–20211
In the released filesNamed by Jeffrey Epstein and by Epstein’s correspondents, most often Steve Bannon, in messages and emails cited below, dated April 2018 to July 2019; discussion of approaching Pompeo or his staff is recorded, but nothing on this record shows an approach was made or received; a search of the release under the variants listed below returned no communication between Pompeo and Epstein2

Michael Richard Pompeo (born December 30, 1963) is an American politician and lawyer who served as U.S. Representative for Kansas’s 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2017, as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 to April 2018, and as Secretary of State from April 2018 to January 2021.1 His name appears in messages and emails cited below, dated from April 2018 to July 2019, in which Jeffrey Epstein and his correspondents, most often Steve Bannon, discussed the Trump administration’s personnel and foreign policy.345 In several of those exchanges Epstein and Bannon discussed approaching Pompeo or his staff, once about a trip Bannon was invited to make and once on behalf of Miroslav Lajčák, a Slovak diplomat associated in the messages with a NATO post; nothing in the release shows that any such approach was in fact made or received.65 A search of the release under the variants set out below returned no message, letter, calendar entry, manifest or financial record recording contact of any kind between Pompeo and Epstein.2

Background

Pompeo graduated first in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and served as a U.S. Army officer. He took a law degree at Harvard in 1994 and in 1996 co-founded the Wichita aircraft-parts company Thayer Aerospace with three West Point classmates, selling his interest in 2006. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in November 2010 and took his seat in January 2011.1

In the released files

Most of the documents below are forensic extractions from Jeffrey Epstein’s own device, in which the messages he sent appear in one column and the messages he received in the other; every attribution here was read from the page image rather than from the machine-readable text.7 The same conversations appear repeatedly in the release under different export formats and different production numbers; the citations below are to one copy of each.

Cabinet and personnel, 2018

On May 2, 2018, six days after Pompeo was sworn in as Secretary of State, Epstein wrote to Bannon: “I like the idea of pence stepping down in favor of Pompeo so that when it happens. He becomes pres.” Bannon replied, “Has that idea been shopped???”3

On August 27, 2018 Epstein asked Bannon “Who is in your cabinet Hannity . Nunn .? burke. . ? fill it out?” Bannon answered with a numbered list of fifteen posts and names, of which the first was “1.Defense : Pompeo”.4 Bannon replied ”???”; ninety seconds later Epstein wrote back, “It was Nixons frost interview. great. - I meant your personal advisory council that wants Steve to succeed. Sorry . My short emails are often confusing.”4 Epstein’s own correction describes the list as an answer to a misunderstood question about Bannon’s personal advisory council rather than a government cabinet; the exchange took place in August 2018, when Pompeo was Secretary of State.41

On September 14, 2018, in a long message to Bannon arguing that the Trump administration should be judged over a longer horizon, Epstein used a football metaphor: “There ( sic ) defense is maxine waters and nancy pelosi ) donalds offense is pompeo mattis and kelly.”8

On December 22, 2018, in an email thread with Bannon about reports that the president had discussed dismissing the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Epstein wrote: “getting rid of powell much more important than syria /mattis. . I guess pompeo , only one left. . unless ambassador heather has a brilliant idea. - a first. . jared and ivanka , need to go. !!!”9

Vice-presidential speculation, 2019

On March 12, 2019 Epstein told Bannon, “Djt. Now really down on pence”. Bannon asked how he had heard. Epstein replied that the president “thinks Pompeo would be better vp” and “Says pence not really loyal.” Bannon answered: “Pompeo much better VP.”10 The messages record what Epstein told Bannon the president thought; the documents contain no corroboration of the report and no indication that Pompeo knew of the exchange.10

Discussion of approaching Pompeo and his staff, 2019

On February 12, 2019 Epstein told Bannon that Pompeo had been in Slovakia that day with Miroslav Lajčák, then Slovakia’s foreign minister and chairman of the OSCE.11512 Bannon asked, “Today???”; Epstein replied, “Yes.” Bannon answered, “Very cool,” and Epstein added, “So complex. wow.”11

On April 30, 2019 Epstein wrote to Bannon: “on another note if you like you can go to yemen and meet with heads . you have an invitation.” Bannon replied, “Would love it.” Epstein then wrote, “have fun” and “you should if you decide of course coordinate with pompeo.”6

On May 11, 2019 Epstein told Bannon, “You can give him insight into pompeo and bolton.”13 In a separate thread the same day he wrote to another correspondent, “Steve can give your friend great insight into pompeo and bolton. Two of Steves choices”.14

On May 15, 2019, after sending Bannon comments on the withdrawal of American diplomats from Iraq, Epstein wrote: “Someone on pompeo team should sit with mr evil.” The document does not say who was meant.15

On June 17, 2019 Epstein told Bannon that NATO wanted to check its choice of Lajčák with Washington, asking whether he should contact “Bolton or pompeo” about it.5 Bannon asked for the man’s title, and after Epstein gave it replied: “Yes yes yes”, “Pompeo and kiron skinner”, “Let me work it.”5 Kiron Skinner was then Director of Policy Planning at the State Department.16 On July 5, 2019 Epstein returned to it. Bannon wrote, “I’m working Pompeo” and “For support”; Epstein then asked, “Did you reach mike or anyone on his dog nato aspiration”, following it with “Dsg-”.17 The word “dog” is printed that way in the document.17 Nothing in the release shows whether any approach to Pompeo or his staff, by Lajčák, by Bannon, or by anyone else, was in fact made or received.2

Other references

On April 30, 2018 the businessman Jide Zeitlin wrote to Epstein about press coverage of Iran, asking about “Netanyahu’s comments with Pompeo about Iran” and, of the same diplomatic activity, noting “the two hours MbS kept Pompeo waiting.”18

On November 13, 2018 Epstein wrote to a correspondent whose name is redacted in the document, telling them what they could tell “mike” and describing a conversation with Bannon that “will break the ice”; the message includes a coarse aside about a third party that is not reproduced here. The correspondent replied, “OK, I will:)”19 The next day, after the correspondent said they were arriving from Washington, Epstein told them Pompeo was “one of the few that can get across and has the respect still of trump” and that “Steve brought him from obscurity , a tea party member into the limelight.” The correspondent said they were “seeing him at 2pm” and called it “our first real meeting.”19 The document identifies “mike” with Pompeo only through this second exchange, not in the message of November 13 itself.19

On January 11, 2019 Børge Brende, the president of the World Economic Forum,20 wrote to Epstein about the coming Davos meeting that “We will have Mnuchin and Pompeo.” Epstein replied, “You will have fun . Pompeo will run for president”, and, after Brende called Pompeo “very smart”, added: “He’s bannon boy.”21

On May 28, 2019 Epstein told Bannon he had seen part of Michael Wolff’s book Siege: Trump Under Fire and passed on a passage from it in his own words: “In the last few weeks he had installed his allies. Pompeo bolton kudlowl lewandowski and bossie Bannon people carrying bannons message . UGH”.22 The sentence is Epstein’s compression of Wolff’s text, not an observation of his own.22

Timeline

DateEventSource
Apr 30, 2018Jide Zeitlin emails Epstein about Pompeo and Iran18
May 2, 2018Epstein to Bannon on Pence stepping down “in favor of Pompeo”3
Aug 27, 2018Bannon’s hypothetical cabinet list places Pompeo at Defense; Epstein says he meant Bannon’s advisory council4
Sep 14, 2018Epstein to Bannon: “donalds offense is pompeo mattis and kelly”8
Nov 13, 2018Epstein tells a redacted correspondent what to raise with “mike” ahead of a meeting19
Nov 14, 2018Epstein to the correspondent: “Pompeo , one of the few that can get across”19
Dec 22, 2018Epstein to Bannon: “I guess pompeo , only one left”9
Jan 11, 2019Børge Brende to Epstein on the Davos delegation; Epstein: “He’s bannon boy”21
Feb 12, 2019Epstein tells Bannon Pompeo has been in Slovakia with Miroslav Lajčák11
Mar 12, 2019Epstein and Bannon on Pompeo as a replacement vice-president10
Apr 30, 2019Epstein tells Bannon to “coordinate with pompeo” over a Yemen invitation6
May 11, 2019Epstein offers Bannon’s “insight into pompeo and bolton” in two threads1314
May 15, 2019Epstein to Bannon: “Someone on pompeo team should sit with mr evil”15
May 28, 2019Epstein relays a passage on Pompeo from Wolff’s Siege22
Jun 17, 2019Epstein and Bannon discuss approaching Bolton or Pompeo over Lajčák’s NATO post5
Jul 5, 2019Bannon: “I’m working Pompeo”; Epstein asks whether he reached “mike”17

Response

No statement by Pompeo on this material is recorded on this page. The documents are Epstein’s own correspondence with third parties; none of them is addressed to Pompeo, copied to him, or answered by him.2 A search of published reporting, conducted September 2026, under the terms “Pompeo” together with “Epstein,” “Bannon,” “spokesman,” “statement,” “declined to comment” and “did not respond,” and under “Pompeo” and “Lajčák” or “Slovakia,” found no report of a statement, comment or response from Pompeo or a spokesperson for him about this material.23

What the search returned

The corpus of released files was searched under “Pompeo”, the phrases “Mike Pompeo” and “Secretary Pompeo”, and the misreadings “Pompei”, “Pompeio”, “Pomepo” and “Pompo”. The documents described above are the ones in which Pompeo is discussed in Epstein’s own correspondence. The remaining results fall into several groups, none of which records contact between the two men: further export formats of the same message threads under different production numbers; Federal Bureau of Investigation daily news briefings and press digests, whose bolded item headings read like article titles but are the briefing’s own summaries of items unconnected to Epstein; an investment-bank research note naming Pompeo in commentary on Turkey; Epstein’s own correspondence sharing news links that name Pompeo, including one email whose own subject line names him; mailing-list newsletters and a Wikipedia printout naming Pompeo among other officials; and scanned pages of Michael Wolff’s Siege. No message, email, calendar entry, flight manifest, address-book entry or financial record connecting Pompeo to Epstein was returned.2

  • People: Steve Bannon; Børge Brende; Jide Zeitlin; Kiron Skinner; Miroslav Lajčák.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Wikipedia, “Mike Pompeo.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pompeo ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Full-text search of the Department of Justice release (full_text_corpus.db, pages_fts) on 2026-09-04 under the terms listed under “What the search returned.” Statements about what the search returned describe that search and not the contents of the release as a whole. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, May 2, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615063 p.3. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, August 27, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615283 pp.1–2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, June 17, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615944 pp.3–4. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, April 30, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615808 p.1. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. The threads are Cellebrite-style extractions from Epstein’s device. Sent and received messages are distinguished by column and colour in the page image. No telephone number from any extraction is reproduced on this page. Attribution for every message quoted here was taken from the page image and checked against the sender fields in the alternate text exports of the same threads. ↩

  8. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, September 14, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615330 p.4. ↩ ↩2

  9. Email thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, “Re: Trump has discussed firing Fed chief after latest interest rate hike: report | TheHill,” December 22, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02611328 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  10. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, March 12, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615655 pp.2–3. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, February 12, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615614 p.7. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. Miroslav Lajčák is named directly in Epstein’s own correspondence in the release, signing as “Miroslav Lajčák, President of the UN General Assembly, 72nd s=ssion.” The = in that last word is on the face of the sheet, a quoted-printable artefact carried into the document, and is given here as printed rather than repaired. Miroslav Lajčák to Jeffrey Epstein, July 29, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02601170 p.1. The iMessage threads cited above refer to him as “miro” and, in one instance, give his positions without using his name; this page uses the standard spelling the same correspondent gives in full. ↩

  13. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, May 11, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01616066 p.8. ↩ ↩2

  14. iMessage thread, Epstein and a correspondent, May 11, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01614547 p.3. ↩ ↩2

  15. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, May 15, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01616087 p.6. ↩ ↩2

  16. Wikipedia, “Kiron Skinner,” Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State, September 4, 2018 – August 2, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiron_Skinner ↩

  17. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, July 5, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615976 p.3. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  18. Email, Jide Zeitlin to Epstein, April 30, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02451920 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  19. iMessage thread, Epstein and a correspondent whose name is redacted in the document, November 13–14, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01616373 pp.1–2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  20. Wikipedia, “Børge Brende.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B8rge_Brende ↩

  21. iMessage thread, Epstein and Børge Brende, January 11, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01612624 p.3. The extraction’s own contact label reads “Berge Brende”; this page uses the standard spelling. ↩ ↩2

  22. iMessage thread, Epstein and Steve Bannon, May 28, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01615894 pp.3–4. The passage Epstein compressed is at Michael Wolff, Siege: Trump Under Fire (Henry Holt, 2019), p.22, read from the copy of the book scanned into the release at https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00316512 p.16. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. Search of published reporting conducted September 2026 under the terms named above. This statement describes that search; it is not a claim that no such statement exists anywhere. ↩

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