ABC spiked Epstein-Clinton exclusive, hyped anti-Trump smears

FPI / November 6, 2019

Project Veritas on Nov. 5 released a video of ABC’s Amy Robach saying that a major story she had about Jeffrey Epstein three years ago, which reportedly named both Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew as the wealthy pedophile’s friends, was killed by network executives who told her the story was not ready for air.

In response, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said: “For ABC to make the comment that it wasn’t up to our standards to put on television, I guess that doesn’t apply to Kavanaugh, I guess that doesn’t apply to Covington kids, I guess that doesn’t apply when you put up a video that and say ‘look at the shelling in Syria’ but it’s actually Kentucky.”

Robach, co-anchor of Good Morning America, is seen on video expressing frustration to an ABC News producer that a witness brought forth damning information regarding Epstein, but the network opted against airing the report.

“I’ve had this interview with Virginia [Guiffre],” Robach is seen explaining of the alleged Epstein victim. “We would not put it on the air. I was told ‘Who’s Jeffrey Epstein. No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story.' ”

Robach continues: “We convinced her [Giuffre] to talk to us. It was unbelievable what we had, Clinton, we had everything.”

“I had it all three years ago,” she adds.

Gidley, in an interview with Breitbart Editor in Chief Alex Marlow also pointed to the ABC News Brian Ross Russia report that actually shifted the stock markets before the news outlet had to walk back Ross’s reporting.

While the higher-ups at ABC told Robach the Epstein story wasn’t up to its standards, the network in the meantime ran with several questionable stories, The Daily Caller noted:

• ABC ran a number of stories on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, including gang-rape allegations that were only substantiated by Stormy Daniels’ former attorney Michael Avenatti.
• Former ABC employee Brian Ross ran a story falsely claiming that President Donald Trump had directed Michael Flynn to make contact with the Russians prior to the election.
• The “live footage” ABC aired of armed conflict in Syria was actually filmed on location at a shooting range in Kentucky.

Robach and ABC each released a statement on the Project Veritas video, saying that they continued to pursue the Epstein story but it never went to air because it didn’t meet their editorial standards.

Fox News host Jesse Watters questioned the network’s statement Tuesday on “The Story” with Martha MacCallum, asking how many underage girls might have been raped in the time ABC held off on the Epstein story and pointing out stories that didn’t appear to meet any reasonable standard.

“As Amy says, she had witnesses. She had victims. She had photographic evidence with Bill Clinton connection and a British royal family connection,” Watters said. “And ABC News said that did not meet their editorial standards. What are those standards? I want them to come clean because they went after Brett Kavanaugh with 40-year-old hearsay, with no corroborating witnesses, no evidence, and a lot of that was furnished by Michael Avenatti … a bankrupt tax cheat, who brought forth gang-rape allegations with no evidence. So what were those standards that allowed that to get on air? I would like to know.”

ABC was further embarrassed after airing footage of what the network claimed was live military action in Syria, only to later admit that it was two-year-old stock footage shot at a gun range in Kentucky.

“The desire of the media to getting it first, instead of getting right is shocking,” Gidley said.

Journalists, he get praised by their peers and promoted in their news organizations for their efforts to take out President Trump.

“You want to succeed, you try to take down a president, facts or reporting or news reporting be damned,” Gidley said.

In the video released by Project Veritas, Robach hinted that the Epstein story may also have been spiked because ABC did not want to offend the British royal family. Giuffre has long alleged she was delivered to Britain’s Prince Andrew for paid sex as a teenager.

“The Palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways,” Robach said. “We were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will that we, that also quashed the story.”

Giuffre said in a sworn affidavit that she was flown on Epstein’s private planes to his properties in New Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Paris, and New York, and said meetings were also arranged for sex in London and elsewhere with Prince Andrew.

Jason Stein, the “spin doctor” hired to craft Andrew’s communications strategy and to repair his damaged reputation, has already quit, the Daily Mail reported over the weekend.

The Sun reported in early October that Stein had been hired and that he would report directly to Andrew’s private secretary, rather than to the Buckingham palace press office.

Stein’s friends insisted to the Daily Mail that he had no role in the recent “pathetic” efforts by Andrew’s friends to downplay his Epstein connections or to discredit a woman who has accused him of having sex with her when she was one of Epstein’s underage “sex slaves,” as Lui wrote.

These efforts have included claiming that two notorious Epstein-related photos of Andrew had either been faked or manipulated.



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