The head of NBC News reportedly sent the networks employees a point-by-point rebuttal of Ronan Farrows book Catch and Kill, which alleges that the network tried to cover up serial sexual abuse by former Today host Matt Lauer and that those efforts factored into NBCs derailing of Farrows reporting on disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

We have no secrets and nothing to hide, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim wrote in a Monday memo obtained by several news outlets ahead of Tuesdays planned release of Farrows book.

The memo characterized the book as Farrows effort to defame NBC News, claiming that he had an axe to grind.

NBC News has forcefully pushed back after several explosive excerpts were released last week alleging that the network paid settlements to multiple employees who spoke up about Lauer and that the accusation that led to his 2017 firing involved him raping a then-NBC News employee, Brooke Nevils .

According to Farrows book, Oppenheim and NBC News Chairman Andy Lack tried to downplay Nevils allegation by falsely emphasizing that the incident hadnt been criminal or an assault.

In Mondays memo, Oppenheim reportedly said he felt absolutely terrible about Matt Lauers horrific behavior.

But the facts do not support Farrows allegation of a cover-up, and he offers no further evidence, Oppenheim continued.

Catch and Kill details Farrows reporting on Weinsteins alleged serial sexual abuse, including threats and surveillance he faced from Weinstein and his associates. It also accuses NBC News, where Farrow was working when he began investigating Weinstein, of trying to dissuade him from reporting on the Hollywood producer and later quashing the story. Farrows story was eventually published by The New Yorker.

Farrow takes the first false allegation that we knew about Lauers offenses and uses it to sustain another, that we obstructed his reporting on Harvey Weinstein. Attached is the detailed accounting of that reporting, which we released in September 2018, Oppenheim wrote in his memo, referring to NBCs internal investigation of the matter following Lauers firing. Once, again, we stand by every word of it. In the meantime, Farrows effort to defame NBC News is clearly motivated not by a pursuit of truth, but an axe to grind. It is built on a series of distortions, confused timelines, and outright inaccuracies.

A spokesperson for NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Farrow has repeatedly stood by his reporting, saying that his book was extensively fact-checked and includes documentation for his claims.

These are now repeated claims made specifically by those with the most to lose from the truth, a representative for Farrow said in a statement Monday. We stand by the reporting in the book, 100 percent, and believe that it discredits this attempt by NBC to rewrite the facts.

Responding to Oppenheims memo on CBS This Morning on Monday, he accused NBC of defending itself with untruths and lies, arguing that the networks efforts demonstrate the larger pattern laid out in his book: powerful people and institutions trying to attack and obstruct reporters.

Farrows allegations of a cover-up have reportedly disturbed employees at NBC. At a Q&A session last week, they questioned Oppenheim about the networks handling of the rape allegation against Lauer. Staffers told CNN that the conversation was heated and the most contentious exchange I have ever seen between staff and management.

Oppenheim has come under fire himself for sexist commentaries he wrote in college. NBC staffers circulated the Harvard Crimson columns last week, according to the Daily Beast . In one column, Oppenheim lamented the firing of NBC sportscaster Marv Albert in 1997 after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault. (Albert was later rehired.) In another, Oppenheim wrote that apparently women enjoy being confined, pumped full of alcohol and preyed upon.

In a Los Angeles Times interview on Sunday, Oppenheim apologized for the Harvard columns, calling them totally inappropriate.

Lauer has similarly launched a campaign against Farrows book, denying the rape allegation in a lengthy open letter attacking Nevils, which she called a case study in victim blaming .

This story has been updated with a statement from Farrow.

Need help? Visit RAINNs National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Centers website .