Ronan Farrow Claims NBC Silenced Matt Lauer's Accusers

News of Matt Lauer's axing from NBC News in 2017 caused a massive media storm. It appeared as if NBC News was genuinely unaware of the accusations of "inappropriate sexual behavior at work" against the former "Today" show host.

However, behind the scenes were "multiple secret settlements and non-disclosures" that silenced the women speaking out against Lauer, according to Ronan Farrow, who spoke out in a new interview Friday.

These deals were reportedly struck years before Lauer was fired from NBC News and several senior execs were aware of what was going on, Farrow claimed Friday in an interview with "Good Morning America" ahead of the release of his tell-all book "Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators."

"What we show in this book, with a paper trail, with documents, is that there were multiple secret settlements and non-disclosures being struck with women at NBC News, years before — over period of six to seven years, a period in which NBC had previously denied any settlements — there were seven non-disclosure agreements," he said, according to People. "Multiple ones of those were with Matt Lauer accusers. And I spoke to senior executives who were told about those earlier incidents [with Matt Lauer]."

Farrow said the evidence in his book reveals without any dispute that there was "a chain of secret settlements at this company that were covered up, with victims of harassment and assault."

Some of the deals were with Lauer's accusers but there were ones about others in the company.

"This was a pattern, it was concealed from journalists there. That’s bigger than NBC, it’s bigger than these executives," he said.

NBC denies Farrow’s allegations about secret settlements.

• Ronan Farrow: I Was Spied on ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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