Multiple victims of billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are accusing his assistant of lying to Congress.
Several Epstein survivors, including four who spoke publicly and two others who did so anonymously,told CNNthat Lesley Groff’s assertionslast monthwere outright false. Groff testified before the House Oversight Committee on June 9 andclaimedthat she never met any of the girls and young women who gave Epstein massages and did not know anything about their backgrounds.
The victims said that was not the case, describing meeting Groff in person, telling her their ages, and being paid by Groff directly. Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda said she saw Groff regularly after first meeting Epstein in 2002, when she was not yet 14 years old.
“She’s lying,” Lacerda said. “Just me and my friends, she’s met at least three or four of us.”
Sharlene Rochard, who told CNN she was a young New York City model when she met the billionaire, said that she met Groff “multiple times in different locations.” Lara Blume McGee, who said she was abused from 2001 to 2003, described meeting Groff at Epstein’s New York townhouse at least twice.
Several of these women told CNN that Groff was well aware of their ages. Lacerda said that Groff asked detailed questions about new girls and ordered her to tell her friends to bring school IDs to sessions with Epstein because of his preference for younger girls.
“She would ask, ‘What does the girl look like? Where is she from? How old is she?’ over the phone,” Lacerda said. Rochard said that she and other girls would give Groff their passport information and identification to book flights, which plainly showed their ages. One anonymous victim said Groff helped her fill out her passport application at Epstein’s New York City office.
“I sat with her and she took all my information in person. She obviously knew my age,” the woman said. But when Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyamdirectly askedGroff in June if she handled or viewed any of the girls’ or women’s passports, Groff said no.
“I may have seen a passport—a picture of a passport, but I never had anything to do with their passports,” Groff said.
Multiple women, including Lacerda, said that Groff was also directly involved in cash payments, putting $100 bills in long white envelopes and handing them to them. Groff denied paying anyone on Epstein’s behalf, telling the committee that she sometimes arranged for money to be picked up or delivered.
All of this suggests more lies out of Epstein’s inner circle, joining those from Epstein’s longtime fixerGhislaine Maxwell. Despite new revelations from Congress and the Justice Department, though, no new charges have been filed in the U.S. against anyone involved in Epstein’s massive abuse operation.
Donald Trump is absolutely, finally, paying E. Jean Carroll.
The Second Circuit Court of Appealsdeniedthe president’s emergency motion to temporarily suspend the court-ordered payment late Wednesday.
The decision came shortly after Judge Lewis Kaplanorderedthe release of $5 million in court-held funds to the beleaguered columnist, more than three years after Trump was found civilly liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store in late 1995.
The last-minute stay was a Hail Mary thrown by Trump’s legal team, who had tried to appeal the case to the Supreme Court earlier this week. But the nation’s highest judiciary ultimately rejected the request on Tuesday.
