NBC settled with several Matt Lauer accusers years before his firing, Ronan Farrow reports

Ronan Farrow isn't nearly done taking NBC to task.

In Farrow's upcoming book Catch and Kill, he reveals the complaint against Matt Lauer that led to his firing in November 2017 was a rape allegation, a piece of reporting that prompted NBC to release a statement condemning the former Today host's "appalling and reprehensible" behavior. The network also said it "first learned" of Lauer's alleged behavior immediately before firing him, with NBC News chair Andy Lack saying, "Any suggestion that we knew prior to that evening or tried to cover up any aspect of Lauer's conduct is absolutely false and offensive."

But that's exactly what Farrow is reporting, saying on Good Morning America on Friday that NBC settled with Lauer accusers for "years before" learning of Brooke Nevils' rape allegation in 2017.

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"There were seven non-disclosure agreements," Farrow said. "Multiple ones of those were with Matt Lauer accusers. This is years before this incident with Brooke Nevils and the firing. And I spoke to senior executives who were told about those earlier incidents."

Lauer issued an open letter this week insisting his encounter with Nevils was consensual, and his lawyer says he "did not have a single complaint brought to his attention" until November 2017. NBCUniversal in 2018 announced a five-month internal investigation had found "no evidence indicating that any NBC News or Today leadership, News HR or others in positions of authority in the News Division received any complaints about Lauer's workplace behavior prior to Nov. 27, 2017."

But Farrow said Friday it's "indisputable based on the evidence in this book that there was a chain of secret settlements at this company that were covered up ... this was a pattern." Brendan Morrow