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Leaked video reveals ABC News suppressed Jeffrey Epstein story since 2015

The right-wing website Project Veritas published a leaked video on Tuesday that reveals ABC News had suppressed a story about the criminal sex-trafficking activities and high-profile connections of Jeffrey Epstein since 2015.

In the leaked “hot mic” video from last August, ABC Breaking News Anchor and Good Morning America co-host Amy Robach is seen on set discussing in detail with her off-camera producer the fact that ABC shut down her Epstein story and that the Disney-owned network went along with efforts by multiple sources not to air it.

Robach says: “I’ve had this story for three years. I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts (Giuffre) [Epstein accuser]. 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.’”

She went on, “Then the Palace found out we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways. We were so worried that we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate [Middleton] and Will [Prince William], that also quashed the story.”

Robach then explains that Giuffre had evidence implicating Alan Dershowitz and Bill Clinton in Epstein’s activities. “She had pictures, she had everything,” Robach said. “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.”

According to NPR reporter David Folkenflik, Alan Dershowitz—who was also one of Jeffrey Epstein’s defense attorney’s—called ABC News and pressured the network to kill Robach’s story.

In a significant segment of her comments, Robach says exactly what everyone in the corporate media was thinking when Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail on August 10. “So do I think Epstein was killed? A hundred percent, yes I do. Because, do you want it? He made his whole living blackmailing people."

She continued: “There were a lot of men on those planes, a lot of men who visited that island, a lot of powerful men who came into that apartment. I knew immediately. And they made it seem as though he made that ‘suicide attempt’ two weeks earlier. But his lawyers claimed he was roughed up by his cell mate around the neck, that was all to plant the seed.”

The ABC newscaster became emotional when she turned to the reasons that ABC spiked her story, saying, “Well, then I got a little concerned about why I couldn’t get on.” Speaking about the information she had on Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, Robach said she was told, “‘Who’s that? Who cares?’ I kept getting that. ‘Who cares?’ She knows everything... She should be careful. She went out and recruited all of these girls. She should watch her back.”

Under the pseudonym “Ignotus,” the ABC News insider who leaked the video submitted a letter to Project Veritas, writing, in part: “I came forward with this information bearing no motives other than to have this information public. I did not and do not seek any personal gain from this information whether it be financial or otherwise and will always decline.”

The leaker also explained to fellow ABC News employees who have been falsely accused of leaking the video, “It is terrible that you have been lashed out at by the company. I know some may put the burden of guilt on me, but my conscience is clear. The actions of the company towards you are the result of their own and not anyone else.”

The ABC News leaker also apologized to Amy Robach, saying, “When I first stumbled across this, my initial reaction was outrage. But this soon turned towards empathy. I cannot imagine doing all the hard work to only have it shelved. If the past few years have taught us anything, it is the truth that some of us have endured many hardships in this industry.”

For its part, ABC News released a terse statement in response to the leaked video, saying, “At the time, 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 is an operation run by the right-wing provocateur James O'Keefe. It has released secretly recorded and doctored videos with the aim of framing up liberal politicians, media outlets and activist groups targeted by the right wing.

Nevertheless, there is no reason to believe that anything in the leaked video or the letter from the leaker is false or manufactured. These developments are in line with what has been clear to the public and any news outlet willing to tell the truth all along: the official declaration that Jeffrey Epstein died from a “suicide by hanging” is at the very least suspicious and most likely a murder coverup.

The circumstances surrounding the discovery of Epstein hanging from a ligature made from torn strips of orange prison sheets in his cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center point to a murder and not to suicide as concluded by the New York Medical Examiner.

Among the facts undermining the finding of suicide are that Epstein was considered a high-risk inmate, yet his cellmate was transferred out and he was left alone in his cell 24 hours before he was found dead. Two guards assigned to check in on Epstein every 30 minutes were reportedly sleeping most of the night before he was found dead, and cameras in front of the cell “malfunctioned” the night of his death.

Epstein suffered multiple broken bones in his neck that are more commonly associated with homicidal strangulation than suicide. Dr. Michael Baden, the former New York City medical examiner and chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations’ Forensic Pathology Panel that investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy, hired by Epstein’s brother to investigate the death, said that he had not seen such injuries associated with a suicidal hanging in his 50 years as a physician.

The life and death of Jeffrey Epstein are a reflection of the decrepit present-day bourgeois order. A multimillionaire Wall Street advisor, with connections to the most powerful business and political figures, as well as British royals, he hosted lavish parties that included teenage “sex slaves.” When his crimes were exposed and he was arrested and convicted the first time, he was given a sentence that allowed him daily trips to his office. When he was caught a second time and there was a threat he would “spill the beans” on his high-powered associates, he turned up dead. The official corporate media, which has known about and covered up for him all along, is promoting the explanation of his death as a suicide.

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