Photo: Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC
Amy Robachhas spoken out about her controversial hot-mic moment about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On Tuesday morning, a right-wing activist group, Project Veritas,leaked a videoof the20/20co-anchor venting her frustrations with ABC for allegedly not publishing her story on Epstein in 2015.
Robach had interviewedVirginia Giuffre,one of the women who accused the late Epstein andPrince Andrewof sexual misconduct. And in the video, the journalist appeared to claim that the network refused to air her story due to pressure from Buckingham Palace.
Both ABC and Robach released statements to PEOPLE denying this.
“As a journalist, as the Epstein story continued to unfold last summer, I was caught in a private moment of frustration,” Robach, 46, said in a statement. “I was upset that an important interview I had conducted with Virginia Roberts [Giuffre] didn’t air because we could not obtain sufficient corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards about her allegations.”
ABC reiterated that Robach’s reporting had not met its standards.
“At the time, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story,” ABC said in a statement. “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.”
In the video, Robach sat at the20/20news desk talking to someone off-camera about the interview she conducted with Giuffre.
Jeffrey Epstein.Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty
“I’ve had the story for three years. I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts. We would not put it on the air,” shesaid in the video. “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 also quashed the story,” she said.
Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein.Ian Forsyth/Getty Images; Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan
Robach also seemed to mention President Bill Clinton, a former friend of Epstein’s.
“It was unbelievable what we had. Clinton — we had everything,” she added. “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, I’m so p—– right now. … What we had was unreal. … I had it all three years ago.”
A source within the network tells PEOPLE that while they did tape the interview with Giuffre, the reporting did not pass their legal and standards check.
“All reporting goes through a legal and standards process, but we couldn’t corroborate key details,” the source tells PEOPLE. “At no time did we stop reporting on Jeffrey Epstein.”
In 2017, Giuffre went toMiami Heraldwith her story, speaking out about the abuse she said she suffered at the hands of Epstein and his friend Ghislaine Maxwell. (Maxwell denied the allegations.) TheHeraldalso interviewed fellow Epstein survivors Courtney Wild, Michelle Licata and Jena-Lisa Jones.
Gillian Laub
The result was a bombshell three-part investigation published last year. It led to Epstein’s arrest on July 6 and the resignation of several government officials.
RELATED VIDEO: Naomi Campbell Was ‘Sickened’ By the ‘Indefensible’ Allegations Against Jeffrey Epstein
The convicted sex offender killed himself in prison in August while awaiting trial, though many have come to claim his death was not a suicide.
Last week, Dr. Michael Baden, New York City’s former chief medical examiner, toldFox & Friendsthat the evidence of Epstein’s death was more comparable to homicidal strangulation rather than a suicidal hanging.
“Those three fractures are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation,” he said on the show on Oct. 30.
He added: “I’ve not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case.”
source: people.com
