By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times - Friday, November 8, 2019

An Emmy-winning producer fired by CBS denied Friday that she leaked the explosive Amy Robach video, insisting in a tearful interview that “I’m not the whistleblower.”

In a sit-down with Megyn Kelly, producer Ashley Bianco said she did not leak the video posted Tuesday by Project Veritas showing Ms. Robach, an ABC anchor, blasting the network for refusing to air for three years her story on allegations against billionaire sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms. Bianco, 25, worked for CBS for four days after three years at ABC before being fired Wednesday. ABC executives contacted CBS about her after the Project Veritas leak, according to multiple media outlets.

“I just want my career back. I want people to know I didn’t do it. That’s all I want,” Ms. Bianco said in the interview with Ms. Kelly posted on YouTube.

“Did you leak the tape?” asked Ms. Kelly. “I did not,” Ms. Bianco replied.

Ms. Kelly pressed her, asking “Not to anyone?” Ms. Bianco responded: “No, ever.”

Ms. Bianco said she watched Ms. Robach’s Aug. 19 broadside against the network, then “clipped” the hot-mic video, saving it to the internal system, but insisted she never went back to review, edit or transfer the tape.

“Everyone in the office was freaked out by what she was saying,” said Ms. Bianco. “And everyone was watching it.”

She also said she had never heard of Project Veritas until the video was released. ABC News said in a Tuesday statement that Ms. Robach’s story failed to meet its standards to air, “but we have never stopped investigating the story.”

“I didn’t know what I had done wrong. I wasn’t even given the professional courtesy to defend myself,” said Ms. Bianco. “I didn’t know what I had been accused of. It was humiliating. It was devastating.”

 

 

Project Veritas responded by posting an anonymous letter from the “ABC insider” saying that they “alone” leaked the tape and that other staffers have been “wrongfully accused” by the network.

“Instead of addressing this head-on like the company has in the past, it has spun into a mission of seek-and-destroy,” said the letter signed by “Ignotus,” which means “unknown.” “Innocent people that have absolutely nothing to do with this are being hunted down as if we are all a sport.”

 

 

The Washington Times has reached out to ABC and CBS for comment.

Ms. Kelly, a former NBC and Fox News personality, posted the interview on YouTube and her new Instagram page, marking her return to the news business after her NBC show was canceled last year.

“Launching my Instagram with an exclusive interview of the woman just fired after the leak of a hot mic moment by ABC’s @ajrobach. But did ABC News target the right person?” said Ms. Kelly in a post.

Epstein, an accused serial pedophile, was found dead Aug. 10 in his New York City jail cell. His death has officially been ruled a suicide.

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