Newly disclosed messages show Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein discussed using a Kovel agreement and other steps to try to shield Bannon’s filmed interviews with Epstein, after the House Oversight Committee released images from the Epstein files.The texts, exchanged from February 2018 into mid‑2019, include Epstein’s line "We need to talk about kovel. Letter and black bag," his plan that Darren Indyke would pay filming costs and control the work product, and Bannon’s claim he recorded roughly 15 to 16 hours, of which fewer than 30 seconds have been public.The disclosures come as a law now requires the Department of Justice to publish decades of investigative records and as legal scholar Bruce Green warns courts often reject attempts to use Kovel arrangements to shelter public‑relations work.