In just released footage, Cosby refuses to talk about rape allegations, asks that responses be 'scuttled'

During an on-camera interview earlier this month, Bill Cosby was asked about long-circulated rape allegations that have recently resurfaced.

"No, no, we don't answer that," Cosby said during the Nov. 6 interview with the Associated Press in Washington, where the 77-year-old was promoting an exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art that features art he's collected. "There's no response."

Cosby, seated next to his wife, Camille, was also asked if people who are familiar with Cosby's fatherly, on-air persona "should believe anything differently."

"There's no comment about that," Cosby said. "And I'll tell you why. I think you were told ... I don't want to compromise your integrity, but we don't, I don't talk about it."

Following the interview, Cosby requested that the question and his responses be scrubbed.

"Now, can I get something from you? None of that will be shown?" Cosby asked.

"I can't promise that myself," Brett Zongker, the interviewer, replied. "You didn't say anything."

"I know I didn't say anything, but I'm asking your integrity since I didn't want to say anything, but I did answer you in terms of I don't want to say anything, of — what value will that have?"

"And I would appreciate it if it was scuttled," Cosby said. "I think if you want to consider yourself to be serious, those will not appear anywhere."

At the time, the Associated Press decided not to fully publish that portion of the interview. But on Tuesday, after NBC, Netflix and TV Land each canceled Cosby-related programs in the wake of increasing sexual assault allegations against him, the news service decided to post the full exchange.

"The AP mentioned the allegations and Cosby's decision not to comment at the end of its story, which, like the interview, was primarily about his loan of more than 50 artworks to the Washington museum," the news service said. "The interview was on the record. The AP had made no agreement to avoid questions about the allegations or to withhold publishing any of his comments at any time."

In an interview with Cosby and Camille that aired on NPR Saturday, the comedian was asked again about the claims.

Earlier this week, former model Janice Dickinson told "Entertainment Tonight" that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 1982.

“The next morning I woke up, and I wasn't wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man,” Dickinson said. “Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain. The next morning I remember waking up with my pajamas off and there was semen in between my legs.”

Cosby's lawyer, Marty Singer, called Dickinson's charges "false and outlandish."

Several other women have recently come forward with similar claims. In a column published Friday in the Washington Post, Barbara Bowman said that in 1985, when she was a 17-year-old actress on "The Cosby Show," the comedian "brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times."

In an essay published by the website Hollywood Elsewhere on Sunday, Joan Tarshis said Cosby drugged and raped her in New York City in 1969.

Cosby has long denied the allegations.

“Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced,” his representative said Sunday. “The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment. He would like to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at age 77, he is doing his best work. There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives.”