Lesley Groff, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant,told members of Congresslast month that she never met any of the girls and young women who provided massages to Epstein and that she didn’t know anything about their backgrounds – including how old they were.
Some Epstein survivors say that Groff was not telling the truth.
In interviews with CNN, multiple Epstein victims, including four women who spoke on record and two who shared their accounts anonymously, took issue with various aspects of Groff’s recent testimony to lawmakers. They described meeting Groff in person, discussing with Groff how old they were and being directly paid by Epstein’s assistant of 18 years — all contrary to what Groff told lawmakers.
Those details were part of Groff’s hourslong,transcribed June 9 interviewwith the House Oversight Committee about her experience working for Epstein. She told members of the panel – which has been questioning a series of people in the convicted sex offender’s orbit this year – that she never knew about Epstein’s abuse of girls and women and that she was duped by his manipulation.
While Groff was listed as a potential co-conspirator to Epstein as part of the controversial non-prosecution agreement struck with federal prosecutors in Florida in 2008, she has never been charged with a crime.
Groff’s lawyer did not respond to CNN’s request for comment for this story.
A spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee told CNN that the committee is “currently reviewing Ms. Groff’s transcript against the available evidence.” She added: “We welcome any additional evidence from individuals who possess information.”
“Lesley Groff knew what was happening in Epstein’s inner circle, which is why Chairman Comer should have required her to testify under oath,” Sara Guerrero, communications director for the oversight committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia, said in a statement.
Another Democrat on the panel, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, said in a statement after CNN’s story published that Groff’s “testimony is directly contradicted by the accounts of multiple survivors.”
“If she lied to us, which it appears she may have,” he added, “she should come clean or else face criminal sanctions.”
Groff’s testimony has only fueled the frustration of Epstein survivors, many of whom are concerned that Congress’ interviews with Epstein associateswill not lead to more accountability. Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell is the only person who has been prosecuted in the US in relation to Epstein, and the Justice Department has said there has been insufficient evidence to pursue other charges – even after it released millions of Epstein files.
“We have so many people coming in and lying and saying they don’t know, they don’t remember,” said Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda. “Can we just have one person at least come in and take accountability and bring in full transparency?”
Groff told members of the House Oversight Committee that Epstein had been a “master manipulator and deceiver” who had kept his abuse a secret from her, saying: “For 18 years, I worked for Dr. Jekyll but was never permitted to see the true Mr. Hyde.”
It is a crime under federal law to “knowingly and willfully” give “materially” false statements to Congress. The Epstein survivors CNN spoke with said it was not possible to produce corroboration for some of their claims about their interactions with Groff, which for some, took place more than two decades ago when many of the victims were teenagers and before the proliferation of smart phones.
Here is what Epstein survivors said in response to some of the claims Groff made in her interview:
