“I’ve had the story for three years. I had this interview with Virginia Roberts; we would not put it on the air… she told me everything. She had pictures, she had everything. She was in hiding for 12 years.”

ABC news anchor Amy Robach explains how her network “quashed” her reporting on serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in a leaked video posted on Tuesday by Project Veritas. Critics argue the new revelations, which come shortly after accounts of NBC’s efforts to kill reporting on sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, demonstrate the corporate media’s subservience to the rich and powerful.

“I’ve had the story for three years. I had this interview with Virginia Roberts; we would not put it on the air,” Robach says in the video. “We would not put it in the air.”

“The [British royal] 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 [Middleton] and [Prince William], that we, that also quashed the story,” said Robach.

“And then Alan Dershowitz was also implicated in, cause of the planes she (Virginia Roberts Giuffre) told me everything. She had pictures, she had everything. 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, Clinton, we had everything.”

Beyond threats from the royal family, ABC may have cut the story after pressure from Dershowitz, who served as one of Epstein’s defense attorneys and has been accused of rape by several of Epstein’s victims.

“I tried for three years to get it on, to no avail,” Robach complained in the video. “What we had was unreal. Other women backing it up. Hey. Yep. Brad Edwards (Giuffre’s lawyer), the attorney, three years ago saying like, there will come a day, when we realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known. I had it all three years ago.”

Epstein Suicide… or Murder?

Top forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said last week that he believes Epstein was killed by homicide strangulation, in contrast to the official ruling of suicide. Robach agrees.

“So do I think he was killed? A hundred percent, yes, I do. Because do you want it? He made his whole living blackmailing people,” asserted Robach. “There were a lot of men in those planes, a lot of men who visited that island, a lot of powerful men who came into that apartment.”

An employee is then heard saying, “when I heard he was found dead in his jail cell. I was like…”

“I knew immediately,” Robach answered. “And they made it seem as though he made that “suicide attempt” two weeks earlier. But his lawyers claim that he was roughed up by his cellmate around the neck, that was all like to plant the seed. And then. That’s why I really believe it. Like really believe it.”

Robach also mentioned Epstein fixer and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in the recording.

“Ghislaine Maxwell, who I had all sorts of stuff on her too,” Robach continued. “She knows everything… She should be careful. She was like his, she went out and recruited all of these girls. She should watch her back. Cause if she goes, I mean, I’d have like security guards all around me.”

Media Harshly Criticized for How it Handled Epstein

Project Veritas notes that the recording took place approximately a day after NPR published an article in August sharply criticizing ABC and other major media outlets for their failure to cover the Epstein story. In the August article, Giuffre told NPR’s David Folkenfilk she was never told why ABC spiked the interview.

“At the time, in 2015, Epstein was walking around a free man, comparing his criminal behavior to stealing a bagel,” Giuffre wrote in an email to NPR. “I really wanted a spotlight shone on him and the others who acted with him and enabled his vile and shameless conduct against young girls and young women.”

In 2015, Epstein was enjoying his jet-setting lifestyle with the support of numerous Wall Street and Silicon Valley friends. Critics believe ABC’s decision to cut the interview may have enabled Epstein to continue his sexual predation.

“I viewed the ABC interview as a potential game-changer,” Giuffre told NPR. “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.”

Robach and ABC quickly responded in a network statement, claiming she was caught “in a private moment” of frustration over the lack of progress on the story. “I was upset that an important interview I had conducted with Virginia Roberts didn’t air because I could not obtain sufficient corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards about her allegations.”

Robach’s excuse of insufficient corroborating evidence is contradicted by her recorded comments claiming Giuffre “had pictures, she had everything” and that there were “other women backing it up.” Epstein was already a registered sex offender with dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct.

Robach isn’t the first journalist to have their Epstein coverage cut by a higher-up. Vanity Fair journalist Vicky Ward published a profile of Epstein in 2003 after the mysterious figure gained some attention for flying with former president Bill Clinton and other celebrities on his private jet.

But Epstein pressured then-Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter to omit allegations of sexual abuse Ward had gathered from two sisters who claimed Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell sexually exploited them when they were teenagers from the article.

“It was terribly painful,” the two sisters wrote to NPR about being deleted from the story. “We hoped the story would put people on notice and they would be stopped from abusing other young girls and young women. That didn’t happen. In the end, the story that ran erased our voices.”

Shortly after the article’s publication, Carter found a bullet placed “right outside his front door at his Manhattan home,” according to NPR. The editor then found the severed head of a cat outside of his Connecticut home. “It was done to intimidate,” John Connolly, then a Vanity Fair contributing editor, told NPR. “No question about it.”

NPR’s David Folkenfilk also explained how “reporters at The New York Times and other publications received word Tesla founder Elon Musk was relying on Epstein to advise him on whom to consider hiring as board chair or chief executive,” but the New York Times’ assigned journalist failed to investigate the matter after soliciting a $30,000 donation from Epstein to his favorite charity.