The committee investigating the Capitol riot has hired a man to publicize their findings whose former network allegedly buried coverage of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein under his leadership, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday.
Lawmakers on the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee have hired the former president of ABC News, James Goldston, to promote its findings as a “blockbuster investigative special,” Axios reported. Goldston, who did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire, reportedly intends to portray the findings in a way that will draw the attention of both journalists and less-keyed-in Americans.
“The Democrats have turned to the former ABC News exec, under whose leadership ABC spiked a story on Jeffrey Epstein, to choreograph their Jan 6 political theatre,” McCarthy tweeted Monday afternoon. The GOP leader also highlighted one of his November 2019 tweets that expressed deep concerns that “ABC News chose to bury the truth about Jeffrey Epstein’s role in human trafficking.”
Goldston resigned from his position as president of the news division in 2021 after working for ABC for 17 years, saying that it was a “really tough decision” but that it was time for a change after the chaotic election cycle. ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
I am deeply concerned that ABC News chose to bury the truth about Jeffrey Epstein's role in human trafficking. @RepDougCollins, @RepMcCaul and I sent a letter to the President of @ABC News requesting more information about their enabling of Mr. Epstein. pic.twitter.com/AVqfZKqmt6
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 18, 2019
Project Veritas published a leaked video in 2019 showing ABC News anchor Amy Robach complaining to a colleague about ABC failing to air her 2015 interview with Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre. The leak followed an NPR story that confirmed the Giuffre interview existed and ABC had failed to publish it.
“I’ve had the story for three years,” Robach said in the video, according to NPR. “We would not put it on the air. Um, first of all, I was told, ‘Who was 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.”
“I tried for three years to get it out to no avail, and now these new revelations and — I freaking had all of it,” Robach continues, the publication reported. “I’m so pissed right now. Like, every day I get more and more pissed, ’cause I’m just like, ‘Oh my God! It was — what we had, was unreal.'”
She mentioned in the leaked video that Giuffre had referenced multiple high profile men in the interview, including former President Bill Clinton, Epstein’s cohort Ghislaine Maxwell, and Harvard University law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz (who reportedly called up ABC and requested that the network refrain from airing the interview).
Robach’s comments prompted speculation that ABC had caved to threats from those in powerful places with ties to Epstein who sought to protect themselves, such as Prince Andrew, to whom Giuffre claims Epstein trafficked her for sex (the prince has denied these allegations).
Robach and ABC itself said in statements at the time that they did not air the interview because they could not corroborate some of Giuffre’s key charges.
“As the Epstein story continued to unfold last summer, I was caught in a private moment of frustration. 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,” Robach said, according to NPR. “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.”
ABC also said in a statement that “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.”
Robach, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire, told NPR in 2019 that she really “wanted a spotlight shone on [Epstein] and the others who acted with him and enabled his vile and shameless conduct against young girls and young women.”
“I viewed the ABC interview as a potential game-changer,” she told the publication. “Appearing on ABC with its wide viewership would have been the first time for me to speak out against the government for basically looking the other way and to describe the anger and betrayal victims felt.”