ABC News Defends Jeffrey Epstein Reporting After Project Veritas Posts Amy Robach Hot Mic Moment

Ted Johnson

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ABC News is defending its reporting on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after right-wing site Project Veritas posted a video in which Amy Robach is caught in a hot mic moment complaining that the network did not go with an interview she landed with one of his accusers.

In the video, Robach says, “I had this interview with Virginia Roberts. We would not put it on the air. First of all, I was told, ‘Who’s Jeffrey Epstein? No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story. Then the palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways. We were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will that we, that also quashed the story.”

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Robach said that Roberts “told me everything. She had pictures. She had everything.”

“It was unbelievable what we had. Clinton. We had everything. I tried for three years to get it on to no avail and now it is all coming out and it is like these new revelations and I freaking had all of it.”

The leaked video was from last summer, just as the Epstein story was exploding and he was facing a new charges for sex trafficking of minors. He died in jail in August, in what a coroner ruled a suicide.

In a statement, Robach said that she was caught “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 sufficient corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards about her allegations.” she said. “My comments about Prince Andrew and her allegation that she had seen Bill Clinton on Epstein’s private island were in reference to what Virginia Roberts said in that interview in 2015. I was referencing her allegations — not what ABC News had verified through our reporting.

“The interview itself, while I was disappointed it didn’t air, didn’t meet our standards. 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 is the co-anchor of 20/20.

ABC News said that at the time of the interview in 2015, “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.”

Project Veritas, founded in 2010 by controversial right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe, has specialized in releasing leaked or hidden camera footage of mainstream media figures, often with the intent of exposing bias or embarrassing moments.

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