Megyn Kelly launched her news comeback Friday with an exclusive interview with a former ABC News producer who was accused of leaking the Amy Robach “hot mic” clip— but who tearfully denies doing so, according to The NY Post.
The producer, Ashley Bianco, 25, was fired from a new job at CBS last week after her former bosses identified her — wrongly, she insists — as the leak.
“I’m not the whistleblower,” she sobs at one point.
“I just want my career back. I want people to know I didn’t do it. That’s all I want.”
“Did you leak the tape?” Kelly asks Bianco, as the interview begins.
“No, I did not,” Bianco answers.
“Not to anyone?” Kelly asks.
Again, Bianco insists, “No.”
Meanwhile, Fox News is reporting ABC News and CBS News are both facing a firestorm of criticism over their response to a leaked video featuring ABC anchor Amy Robach complaining that the network had spiked an interview with a prominent accuser of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier this week, reports circulated that ABC had identified the employee suspected of leaking the Robach video to controversial watchdog group Project Veritas. According to the reports, ABC executives informed their counterparts at CBS, where the staffer had recently been hired, of their suspicions and the employee soon lost her job.
Bianco, a former producer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” who joined “CBS This Morning” last month, said she was fired by CBS after the network received a call from ABC informing her new boss that she once had access to the leaked video.
Bianco told Kelly that she doesn’t know who leaked the tape because “everyone” at ABC was aware it existed. She also insisted she had never heard of Project Veritas before this week.
“I begged, I pleaded, I didn’t know what I had done wrong,” she told Kelly. “I wasn’t even given the professional courtesy to defend myself. It was humiliating, it was devastating.”
Meanwhile, the alleged leaker -- using the pseudonym "Ignotus" -- began the piece published by Project Veritas by stressing, "I did not and do not seek any personal gain from this information whether it be financial or otherwise," and expressed their desire to make the information public out of "anger, confusion and sadness."
BREAKING: ABC Insider: Why I, alone, released the Amy Robach Epstein tape. https://t.co/iPaR2Kd4ze— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 8, 2019
CBS News declined to comment on Bianco's claim. ABC News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The dual revelations sparked an avalanche of criticism over the fallout of the leaker crackdown.
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