In a leaked video released Tuesday, ABC’s “Good Morning America” co-host and Breaking News anchor Amy Robach, said the British royal family threatened ABC News to drop a story about Virginia Giuffre, a woman who claimed wealthy pedophile Jeffrey Epstein used her as an underage sex slave for himself and his friends, including Prince Andrew.
In what appeared to be a hot mic moment, Roblach said, in a video released by Project Veritas on November 5, that pressure from Buckingham Palace was one of the reasons why the network killed the story. Robach was recorded as saying:
“First of all, I was told, ‘Who’s Jeffrey Epstein? No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story. The [Buckingham] Palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways.”
RELATED STORY:
She said the network was worried about losing access to Prince William and Kate Middleton and “that also squashed the story.”
In a January 2015 sworn affidavit, Guiffre described how she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell, a close association of Epstein. She was systematically trained as a sex slave for Epstein, and eventually passed around to other men, including Epstein’s longtime associate Prince Andrew, who was at one time sixth in line to the throne. Andrew denied the allegations. Giuffre provided a picture of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s hip with Maxwell in the background.
RELATED STORY:
RELATED STORY:
According to Robach, ABC convinced Giuffre to give an interview three years ago. She said they were able to corroborate her story with accounts of other women and with pictures provided by Giuffre. Roblach said:
“She had pictures, she had everything. She was in hiding for 12 years. We convinced her to come out. We convinced her to talk to us. It was unbelievable what we had.”
Robach said she was concerned and frustrated by the network’s unwillingness to run the story, only to see the story proliferate after Epstein’s arrest, adding:
“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, and I freaking had all of it. I’m so [expletive] right now.”
ABC’s editorial standards have come under scrutiny lately after the network repeatedly aired Kentucky gun range footage, presenting it as Turkish incursion in Syria, finally issuing a correction.
RELATED STORY:
In a statement to Project Veritas, ABC said that it has had a team investigating the Epstein story and will release a documentary and a podcast on it in 2020. The network did not comment on questions surrounding pressure from Buckingham Palace. The statement said:
“At the time, not all our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story.”
Hannah Howard, deputy communications secretary to the queen of England, emailed a response to a request for comment, saying:
“This is entirely a matter for ABC.”
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled as suicide by the New York medical examiner, who said he had hanged himself with a sheet from his bed.
RELATED STORY:
However, on October 30, famed pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told Fox News that he believes the physical evidence suggests Epstein didn’t take his own life. He said Epstein’s injuries were “more consistent with ligature homicidal strangulation” than suicide.
Robach seemed fully on board with the theory that Epstein didn’t kill himself, saying:
“Do I think he was killed? A hundred percent, yes I do. Because do you want it? He made his whole living blackmailing people. There were a lot of men in those planes, a lot of men who visited that island, a lot of powerful men who came into that apartment.”
RELATED STORY:
Roblach said she “knew immediately” when the news of Epstein’s death broke, adding:
“And they made it seem as though he made that ‘suicide attempt’ two weeks earlier. But his lawyer claimed that he was roughed up by his cellmate around the neck, that was all like to plant the seed,” she said, referring to the conflicting explanations regarding Epstein’s neck injuries after he was found unconscious in his cell 18 days before his death. That’s why I really believe it, like, really believe it.”
Roblach responded to the video in a statement saying she was disappointed that the interview didn’t air, but that the network indicated it lacked “sufficient corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards.”
