On Tuesday, a video surfaced online in which ABC News reporter Amy Robach (co-host of “20/20” and fill-in anchor for “Good Morning America”) vented her frustration about the Jeffrey Epstein story, unaware that her mic was hot.
Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender with ties to several other rich and powerful men such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Prince Andrew (son of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth), former president Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump, was arrested on July, 6, 2019 after being charged with the sex trafficking of minors and was found dead in his jail cell the following month on Aug. 10.
Epstein’s death was officially ruled a suicide by a medical examiner.
In the footage, which was leaked by an ABC insider and released by the right-wing website Project Veritas, Robach is seen on the set of “Good Morning America” during a break in programming as she tells an off-screen coworker that she had damning evidence against Epstein three years ago.
“I’ve had the story for three years, I’ve had this interview with (Epstein victim) Virginia Roberts (now Virginia Giuffre). We (ABC News) would not put it on the air,” says Robach during the first ten seconds of the video.
Robach then insinuated that people high up in the news organization downplayed the story’s relevance and ultimately killed the story.
“I was told ‘Who’s Jeffrey Epstein? No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story.’”
However, Robach claimed that the British royal family put pressure on the network.
“Then the palace found out that we had her (Giuffre’s) whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways…we were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview (Princess) Kate and (Prince) Will that we also quashed the story.
Robach continued:
“She (Giuffre) had pictures, she had everything. She was in hiding for 12 years…We convinced her to talk to us…it was unbelievable what we had. Clinton (Bill), we had everything.”
Shortly after the clip was made public, both Robach and ABC News released official statements, with Robach stating that she “…was caught in a private moment of frustration…In the years since no one ever told me or the team to stop reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, and we have continued to aggressively pursue this important story.”
Robach’s statement also said that “The interview itself…didn’t meet our standards.”
Further into the clip, Robach alludes to a possible cover-up.
“…there will come a day, when we realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known, I had it all three years ago.”
Then, toward the end of the video, Robach said that she doesn’t believe Epstein truly committed suicide, despite the official report.
“So, do I think he was killed? Absolutely,” said Robach. “A hundred percent, yes I do. He made his whole living blackmailing people…There were a lot of men on those planes, a lot of men who visited that island (Little St. James Island, the island privately owned by Epstein which was allegedly used to traffic teenage girls), lot of powerful men who came into that apartment.”
Giuffre’s attorney, Stan Pottinger, told The Hollywood Reporter that he thought Robach was “spot on” in her unaired report on Epstein.
“We had been told by industry insiders that ABC had a reputation for getting cold feet on matters like this, but we didn’t worry about it, because Amy and Jim Hill were so good,” said Pottinger.
Of ABC News’ editorial practices, Pottinger was less than praiseful.
“I don’t think it does a great favor to ABC’s editorial policy, and their business policy.”
Quinton Bradley
Contributing Writer
Quinton Bradley is an Ohio-based writer. He runs a blog called Hammers and Papyrus and can be followed on Twitter @QBAbstract.