COVER UP

MAGA-Curious CBS Accused of Censoring Major Epstein Scoop

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden says a bombshell “60 Minutes” segment is “being suppressed.”

Sen. Ron Wyden claims that a segment exploring major banks’ dealings with Jeffrey Epstein is “being suppressed” by top CBS News brass.

The Oregon Democrat says he was interviewed for the shelved segment in March. He released a 67-page report on Tuesday alleging that several top banks enabled Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation by failing to properly report his suspicious financial transactions.

Wyden says he was interviewed for a “broader segment being prepared by 60 Minutes regarding the conduct of Wall Street banks and the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands with regard to Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.”

Wyden says he was interviewed by the since-fired 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, whom the MAGA-curious CBS News boss Bari Weiss fired in May.

“It is unclear whether Bari Weiss and CBS News Leadership will allow the broader segment to ever be aired,” Wyden’s report states.

CBS News confirmed that Alfonsi had interviewed Wyden for a potential segment, according to Bloomberg. A spokesperson said the segment did not come together for broadcast before the 60 Minutes season wrapped and declined to say whether it might appear in the upcoming season.

Reached for comment, a CBS News spokesperson told the Daily Beast, “We are proud of our aggressive and extensive reporting on the Epstein scandal. That reporting continues. We air pieces when they are ready and suggesting that an interview is being ‘suppressed’ for any reason is categorically false.”

The spokesperson declined to comment on the segment’s current status, referring the Daily Beast back to the explanation given to Bloomberg.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Alfonsi for comment.

Wyden says in his report that during his interview with Alfonsi, he answered questions related to his “multi-year investigation into transactions financing Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and potential consequences for banks over potentially willful violations of federal anti-money laundering laws.”

Alfonsi was fired from 60 Minutes five months after Weiss temporarily shelved her investigation into the Trump administration’s deportations of Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.

At the time, Alfonsi sent an internal email accusing leadership of spiking the segment for “political” reasons, supercharging claims that Weiss—installed by Trump pal and Paramount CEO David Ellison—is steering coverage to be more favorable for President Donald Trump, who has faced scrutiny over his past friendship with Epstein.

When CBS refused to renew Alfonsi’s contract in May, the veteran correspondent accused her bosses of “choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it.”

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“There’s a feeling that the wall has come down between editorial independence and corporate interests,” she later told The New York Times, a claim echoed by correspondent Scott Pelley who was

According to Wyden’s report, which is based on a review of nonpublic records held by the Treasury Department, Deutsche Bank failed to promptly report to authorities more than $250 million in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein. Deutsche Bank did business with Trump for years until cutting off his businesses in 2021.

The report also found that Bank of America flagged $170 million in Epstein-related transactions five to seven years after they were made.

Wyden said in a statement that the bank records and public court filings reviewed by his team of investigators “detail a shocking pattern of the biggest Wall Street banks in the country choosing to ignore clear evidence of sex trafficking and money laundering, just to keep a wealthy client on the books.”

Several media outlets have at different times been accused of holding back reporting related to Epstein.

In 2019, a leaked video revealed that then-ABC News anchor Amy Robach complained that the network “quashed” her 2015 interview with Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre, suggesting that ABC News had backed down in the face of outside pressure, including from Buckingham Palace.

ABC News defended the decision not to air the interview, saying the details of the story could not be sufficiently corroborated for broadcast, while Robach said she was “caught in a private moment of frustration.”

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Erkki ForsterNight News Reporter

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