ABC News Anchor Caught on Mic Saying Network Quashed Jeffrey Epstein Story

By Jamie Ross, The Daily Beast

06 November 19

BC News anchor Amy Robach was caught on camera slamming her own network for allegedly sitting on the Jeffrey Epstein story three years ago. In a video clip released by right-wing group Project Veritas on Tuesday, Robach is seemingly caught on a hot mic complaining to colleagues that her Epstein story was suppressed by network executives. Robach says she’d spoken to Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges Epstein used her as a sex slave and trafficked her to his powerful friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew. “I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts .. we would not put it on the air,” Robach says on camera. “First of all, I was told ‘Who’s Jeffrey Epstein?’... Then the palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways.” She went on to say the network was afraid that running the story would prevent interviews with Kate Middleton and and Prince William. “It was unbelievable what we had. [Bill] Clinton—we had everything. I tried for three years to get it on to no avail and now it’s all coming out and it’s like these new revelations.”

In a statement issued after the footage was made public Tuesday, Robach said her comments were made in “a private moment of frustration. I was upset that an important interview I had conducted with Virginia Roberts didn’t air because we could not obtain corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards about her allegations” regarding Epstein, Prince Andrew, and Clinton. She added that in the years since the 2015 interview “no one ever told me or the team to stop reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, and we have continued to aggressively pursue this important story.” An ABC News statement issued says: “At the time, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story.” There will also be a two-hour documentary on Epstein and a six-part podcast on the investigation next year, it reads. 

Attorney Stan Pottinger, an attorney for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, told The Hollywood Reporter that Robach and her team traveled to Colorado for the 2015 interview. “We didn't have an exact air date, but a few weeks after it was finished, we got word that they were having second thoughts about it,” he said. “Not Amy and not their producers, but their superiors.” Pottinger also said he had heard from “industry insiders” that ABC had a “reputation for getting cold feet” on stories like this, but said Robach and her team did a “fabulous job” with it. “[We're] just are sorry that it never came out,” he said.