ABC News anchor Amy Robach(left) and Jeffrey Epstein. Yahoo News/Getty.
An ABC News anchor claimed that she had the story on Jeffrey Epstein's pedophile human trafficking ring in 2016 but the story was killed by the news network. Yahoo News. Project Veritas released the video showing Good Morning America anchor Amy Robach commenting on her story about Jeffrey Epstein. She was frustrated that the network refused to air an interview with Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of pimping her out to many rich and powerful people, including Prince Andrew of the UK. She also said she had evidence implicating Bill Clinton. The story came under pressure from the Royal Family as well as Alan Dershowitz, who was also implicated in the story. Robach also said she believed that Epstein was murdered and that his partner Gishlaine Maxwell, might be in mortal danger as well. For ABC's part, they claimed the story did not meet their journalistic standards.
My Comment:
When Project Veritas teased this story last night I assumed that it was something like this. Some news person admitting that the Jeffrey Epstein story was killed. What I was wrong about was when it happened. I had assumed they were talking about current coverage, not the story that could have broken the scandal open three years earlier and could have affected the 2016 election.
What is shocking is that other news outlets, including mainstream ones, are covering this story. In the past, Project Veritas stories have been completely ignored by the mainstream media. They hated Project Veritas even before they started to target mainstream media outlets like CNN and ABC. But this case has several positive stories about the leak that are critical of ABC, or at the very least even handed about it.
It probably is about harming President Trump. Though Trump is largely free from the Epstein scandal, as his behavior was much better than most of the people linked to Epstein, he still knew him and was on record praising him before they had their falling out. More critically, Trump ally Alan Dershowitz was heavily implicated in the story as well, so I am guessing they are pushing the story to hurt President Trump.
That being said, ABC looks very bad here. Not releasing a hugely important story because they felt pressure from the UK Royal Family and a lawyer is just awful. They should have released the story regardless.
I don't believe for a second that the reporting wasn't up to their standards. For one thing, what standards? ABC has a long history of getting stories wrong and leading with things that aren't true. Just a little while ago they got caught showing a fun shoot in Kentucky and labeled it combat footage from Syria. And they didn't have any problem running critical stories of Brett Kavanaugh or the Covington Catholic kids or the dozens of obviously false accusations against President Trump.
And most of the facts in the case alleged by Virginia Giuffe, if not completely validated, are backed by pretty good evidence. There are photos, flight records and corroborating witnesses that back up what she said. It's not like she's some crazy person making everything up, she's a real victim that can at least validate some of her claims.
The political timing of this story too is more than a little suspicious. Had this story been released in 2015 or 2016 it would have likely changed the outcome of the election in favor of Donald Trump. He might not have won the popular vote but he probably would have picked up a couple more states. Hell, if it happened early enough in the election cycle, Hillary Clinton might not have been the candidate for the Democrats and then who knows what would have happened? Maybe we would have President Bernie Sanders instead of President Donald Trump?
My guess is that ABC at least partially killed the story to help protect the Clintons. I do think that the pressure from the Royal Family and Alan Dershowitz was part of it as well, but if the story helped the Clintons instead of hurting them, they would have ran the story.
As for Robach's thoughts on Epstein's death, I don't think she has any unique insight there. Everyone thinks he was murdered. Hearing a journalist say it out loud though is something else and it's a relief to think that our media isn't quite as dumb as they act.
Robach herself seems like someone who at least tries to be a real journalist. She was trying to cover an important story but had that story killed by her bosses. If she had aired the story anyways or given evidence to the police I'd have more respect for her but these days the profession of journalism is so tainted that someone who at least tries to do their job is worthy of some amount of praise. I do hope that her career (and indeed her life) isn't negatively effected by this story.
I am glad that the Epstein case is back in the news. Robach herself said that he might be America's worst pedophile and there are a lot of people that he had connections to that should be brought to justice. I am hoping that this case will encourage journalists to again start digging into the story so some of the world's worst people can at last be brought to justice.
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