ABC News decided not to air a 2015 interview with one of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers

NPR

NPR's David Folkenfilk details how the media failed to expose Epstein years before his arrest last month on sex trafficking charges. As Folkenfilk notes, Epstein was quickly accepted back into high society following his conviction for soliciting underage prostitution, with Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Rose and Chelsea Handler attending a dinner at his house in 2010. In 2015, Folkenfilk reports that ABC News correspondent Amy Robach and her producer Jim Hill flew one of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, and her family to New York City and put them up in the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Robach spent more than an hour interviewing her about Epstein. "I viewed the ABC interview as a potential game-changer," Giuffre said via email to Folkenfilk. "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." The interview never aired, and Giuffre said she was never directly told why. An ABC News source tells Folkenfilk that Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz intervened on Epstein's behalf. "I did not want to see (Giuffre's) credibility enhanced by ABC," Dershowitz tells Folkenfilk.