Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime govt secretary Lesley Groff informed the Home Oversight Committee Tuesday that the convicted intercourse offender was a “grasp manipulator” and that she was unaware of his crimes, in accordance with a number of sources accustomed to her closed-door testimony.
Groff appeared as a part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the federal authorities’s dealing with of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which up to now has included interviews with former Legal professional Common Pam Bondi, Epstein’s longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a jail guard who was on responsibility the night time Epstein died in his jail cell.
Groff, who labored for Epstein in New York for greater than 18 years, was as soon as described by her boss as an “extension of my mind.”
Amongst her job necessities have been scheduling Epstein’s frequent conferences with celebrities, scientists and politicians, reserving Epstein’s every day therapeutic massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging journey for ladies linked to Epstein. She was one in every of 4 ladies listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007.
In line with federal prosecutors, “quite a few victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was chargeable for scheduling massages throughout which they have been sexually abused.”
Groff informed lawmakers Tuesday that she by no means had a romantic or sexual relationship with Epstein and mentioned the message appointments she scheduled for Epstein with younger ladies and women have been with therapeutic massage therapists, supply mentioned. Groff couldn’t recall scheduling massages for anybody aside from Epstein and former Goldman Sachs chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler at a spa, and mentioned the masseuses have been each female and male, sources mentioned. She testified that she would obtain the names of the therapeutic massage therapists from Epstein, and that he instructed her to schedule the massages.
Sources mentioned Groff informed lawmakers that she scheduled many of the massages for Epstein’s New York residence. Groff testified that she by no means witnessed or knew of any sexual abuse.
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in a photograph launched by the New York State Division of Legal Justice.
New York State Intercourse Offender Registry
Groff testified that she by no means met a single therapeutic massage therapist in individual and believes that Epstein — or Bella Klein, a one-time Epstein affiliate — would pay them with “petty money,” sources mentioned. Groff informed lawmakers that she would sometimes ship money by way of couriers, mentioned sources.
Groff testified that when Epstein was arrested in 2006, he informed Groff that he was blackmailed, sources mentioned. She informed lawmakers that she didn’t know she was tied to the 2008 non-prosecution settlement as a listed co-conspirator, which she described that as a “scarlet letter” she wears to today, in accordance with sources.
Groff mentioned Epstein informed her once more after the 2008 plea deal that he was blackmailed. Groff mentioned she resigned in 2019 when Epstein was arrested once more, sources mentioned.
She described to lawmakers that her relationship with Epstein was strictly enterprise, sources mentioned. Epstein and his affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell informed Groff that she shouldn’t affiliate with their pals or colleagues, and insisted their enterprise was none of her enterprise, sources added.
She informed lawmakers that Epstein had lots of people in his circle, and he or she didn’t discover it odd that he had a “massive” therapeutic massage checklist for people internationally, sources mentioned.
Home Oversight Chairman James Comer mentioned on his manner in Tuesday morning that he believed Groff has “data that may be very invaluable to our investigation.”
“Hopefully, we’ll be taught extra as we speak,” Comer mentioned.
The chairman reiterated that the committee is conducting “probably the most thorough investigation ever of Epstein.”
“We’re bringing in an important folks in the entire Epstein legal enterprise which are nonetheless alive, and hopefully we’ll get the reality to the American folks. If there’s a chance for accountability, we positive wish to see that occur,” he mentioned.
Groff didn’t converse to reporters upon her arrival.
Final September at a press convention in entrance of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda particularly referred to as out Groff, alleging that Groff had referred to as her so many occasions to go to Epstein’s place for a therapeutic massage that she dropped out of highschool earlier than the ninth grade.
Lacerda — who was one of many key witnesses that led to Epstein’s 2019 indictment for baby intercourse trafficking — informed ABC Information in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.
“Something that needed to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Lacerda informed ABC Information in an interview, “needed to undergo Lesley Groff.”
Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined remark prematurely of her look on Capitol Hill. He beforehand informed ABC Information that Groff “by no means knowingly booked journey for anybody underneath the age of 18, and had no information of the alleged criminal activity in anyway.”
“Ms. Groff, a father or mother herself, is extremely shocked and deeply upset in regards to the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein,” Bachner mentioned.
After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors included Groff in an inventory of potential co-conspirators and despatched her a subpoena. Bachner knowledgeable the federal government, simply 4 days after Epstein’s arrest, that his shopper “would invoke her Fifth Modification privilege towards compelled self-incrimination” if referred to as to look earlier than a grand jury.
Groff, now 59, finally interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that “making therapeutic massage appointments was simply one other appointment she needed to make” for Epstein, and mentioned that scheduling massages was “round 1%” of her job.
Groff, who was employed by Epstein in 2001, informed the FBI she was instantly struck by Epstein’s way of life and the corporate he saved, describing it as “fairly unbelievable to see all of the folks Epstein handled in politics, tv, et cetera.”
“Groff felt, ‘Wow,'” in accordance with an FBI account of her interview.
Groff was initially paid a wage of $60,000 a yr, however noticed it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein 4 years later, DOJ information present.
The New York Occasions reported in 2005 that Epstein purchased Groff a brand new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to make sure she would maintain working for him.
“There isn’t a manner that I may lose Lesley to motherhood,” Epstein mentioned of Groff, in accordance with the newspaper’s account.
Banking information included within the DOJ’s Epstein files point out that Groff additionally acquired three funds of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein corporations between 2016 and 2018, although the information don’t point out the explanations for the funds.
Bachner informed the federal government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 as a result of she believed him when he mentioned that “somebody was attempting to blackmail him.”
When he was once more arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer informed prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted as soon as the indictment got here out,” Bachner wrote.
In line with paperwork launched by the Justice Division in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one sufferer — who was a minor on the time of her alleged abuse — informed the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the therapeutic massage appointments have been sexual” and “felt it was fairly apparent Lesley knew what was occurring,” in accordance with the DOJ information.
Federal prosecutors in 2021 knowledgeable Groff that she wouldn’t be charged, in accordance with an announcement from her attorneys.
“After a greater than two-year investigation by the Division of Justice into Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct, which included prolonged interviews of witnesses and a radical assessment of related communications, we have now been knowledgeable that no legal fees shall be introduced towards Lesley Groff,” the assertion mentioned.
Lacerda mentioned she hopes the congressional investigators press Groff for solutions.
“I simply assume that she must be sincere about it in order that we are able to have some accountability right here,” she mentioned.
