ABC anchor caught on hot mic saying network sat on Jeffrey Epstein accusations for three years
ABC News says reporting three years ago did not meet editorial standards
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Your support makes all the difference.Newly unveiled video appears to show an ABC News anchor speaking on a hot mic about her reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, and confirming previous reports that the network had conducted interviews with at least one accuser that was not immediately aired.
In the video, apparently from August, anchor Amy Robach can be seen venting about the revelations against the now-deceased billionaire investor and paedophile.
She said in the video that Buckingham Palace had pressured her and ABC over allegations, alongside pressure from Epstein’s network of influential friends.
“She told me everything. She had pictures. She had everything,” Ms Robach said of Virginia Roberts, describing an interview that was not aired three years ago.
“I tried for three years to get it to no avail. And, now it’s all coming out,” she said in the video, which was obtained by a right-wing activist group that has used hidden cameras and disguises in an attempt to uncover liberal biases, and is known for deceptively editing videos about media organisations and left-leaning groups.
Ms Roberts has claimed she had sex with Prince Andrew three times at the age of 17, once in a London townhouse belonging to Epstein’s British-born associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, and once on Epstein's private island. Ms Roberts is also one of several women to have accused Epstein of sexually abusing and trafficking them.
Ms Maxwell has been accused of helping to facilitate a system to bring young women to Epstein, and his friends. She has consistently denied any accusation of wrongdoing.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly and strenuously denied the claim that he had sex with Ms Giuffre. He has acknowledged that it was a "mistake and an error" to meet Epstein after the financier was released from jail in 2010 after serving just over a year for procuring an underage girl for prostitution, but insisted that he never saw or suspected "any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction".
In response to the leaked clip, ABC News said in a statement: “At the time, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story. Ever since we’ve had a team on this investigation and substantial resources dedicated to it. That work has led to a two-hour documentary and 6-part podcast that will air in the new year.”
Ms Robach said in her own statement that the video caught her in a “private moment of frustration”, and that she was upset that her team “could not obtain sufficient corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards about her allegations” when she conducted the interview.
Epstein died after apparently hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell in August.
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