Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / DOJ Records Raise New Questions About Lesley Groff’s Role Around Epstein (5/6/26)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:03Epstein Chronicles. When it comes to Jeffrey Epstein's Corps of four,
- 0:08one of the most important people when it comes to
- 0:11the operation of Epstein's empire was Leslie Groff, and she
- 0:17was in charge of a whole array of different things.
- 0:21We're talking about setting up massages, we're talking about flights,
- 0:25we're talking about all the logistics and under normal circumstances,
- 0:31she would have been part of the Grand Conspiracy right
- 0:34part of RICO, but Epstein was never charged with RICO,
- 0:39so that never occurred. What all you have to do
- 0:44is take a look at the basics, and it's pretty
- 0:47obvious that Leslie Groff was a key component to what
- 0:52Jeffrey Epstein was up to. Now, look, I'm not going
- 0:54to sit here and tell you that Leslie Groff was
- 0:56abusing anybody. She was not, not that we know of.
- 1:00But you don't have to do the actual crime to
- 1:03be part of the conspiracy. You just have to be
- 1:05part of it, whether it's logistically, whether it's actually taking
- 1:09part or just being adjacent. Anybody that's part of the
- 1:15enterprise is part of the whole crime. And Leslie Groff,
- 1:19in my opinion and the opinion of many prosecutors and judges,
- 1:24most certainly was smack dab in the middle of that
- 1:27criminal enterprise. Meanwhile, you have Congress talking to Tom Waite. Now, look,
- 1:32I get it, Glenn Maxwell's boyfriend. Great, But how about
- 1:36Leslie Groff, How about Sarah Kellen Vickers, how about Adrianna
- 1:41Ross or Nadia Marsenkova. Why not call them up? Why
- 1:45not show people you're serious. Today we have an article
- 1:49from the Stamford Advocate and the headline Connecticut Aid arrange
- 1:53victim flights massages for Jeffrey Epstein. DOJ files show this
- 1:59article was authored by Nathaniel Rosenberg. Leslie Groff, Jeffrey Epstein's
- 2:04longtime executive assistant, scheduled massages and coordinated dozens of flights
- 2:08around the world for victims of the disgrace convicted sex trafficker.
- 2:13Recently released Department of Justice document show and this is known.
- 2:17We've known this for years, and the documents just back
- 2:21up all the speculation. But Jeffrey Epstein himself called Leslie
- 2:25Groff's brain and said he couldn't function without her. But
- 2:29it remains unknown whether the Connecticut resident knew about Epstein's
- 2:32sexual assaults, which one victim said once happened just on
- 2:36the other side of a closed door from where Groff
- 2:39was working. Come on, does anyone really believe she had
- 2:43no idea who Epstein was or what he was doing.
- 2:46They all knew, especially people on the inside, the core
- 2:50four Leslie Groff, Nadiam Marsenkova, Adriana Ross, and Sarah Kellen Vickers.
- 2:56They all knew. And not only did they know, they
- 2:58all play their part, whether it was recruiting, whether it
- 3:02was taking part in the abuse, or whether it was
- 3:05logistically like Grof, they all had a part to play,
- 3:09and they all played it. Victims interviewed by federal investigators
- 3:13alleged that Grof schedule massages in New York City where
- 3:17Epstein assaulted women, according to internal FBI summaries of those
- 3:21victim interviews. And it just really boggles the mind. If
- 3:26they had this much information on a criminal empire that
- 3:29was involved in regular human trafficking, if you will, or drugs,
- 3:33everybody would have been locked up, the accountant, the lawyer, everybody.
- 3:38But for whatever reason, hintin when it comes to Epstein,
- 3:42that was never the case, and there was never even
- 3:44real interest in these women, right, they were given that
- 3:47deal and that was the end of it. We'll protect
- 3:50them down in Florida, and then that'll be the end
- 3:52of all of it, and we'll never have to worry
- 3:54about those women talking to the authorities. But even then,
- 3:57we know that Nadia Mars and Covia now was speaking
- 3:59with the authorities behind the scenes, and you would think
- 4:02with her testimony, they'd be able to lock everybody up.
- 4:05So why didn't they do it? Why didn't they pursue
- 4:08it any further? Why did they contain the blast radius
- 4:12to just glame Maxwell. In some cases, Groff allegedly pay
- 4:17the victims or cover their schooling expenses, According to a
- 4:20December twenty nineteen Department of Justice memo summarizing nearly fifty
- 4:24interviews federal agents conducted while investigating potential co conspirators of Epstein,
- 4:31including a testimony from thirty eight victims, nine of whom
- 4:34referenced Groff. Imagine being talked about that much by people
- 4:38that were being trafficked, and you don't get arrested. It
- 4:43is so crazy. The second your name is attached to
- 4:47something like this, everybody should go down it's an obvious conspiracy,
- 4:52it's an obvious reco case. So what the hell's the
- 4:55government doing and why were they so reticent to go
- 4:59the extra mile. Graf, a New Canaan resident, also coordinated
- 5:05dozens of flights that brought potential victims to his properties
- 5:08around the world, according to DOJ documents, which include flight
- 5:12receipts and her emails about those bookings. So she brought
- 5:17these girls to the belly of the beast, set up
- 5:19all the flights, set up all the travel, but she
- 5:21had no idea what was going on. She thought that
- 5:23she was working for a saint. Don't you know, a
- 5:26guy that's never done anything crazy ever in his life,
- 5:28a guy that gives you no signs that he's a
- 5:30degenerate pervert? Is that what she wants us to believe.
- 5:34And if you believe that, well, I think you're stupid.
- 5:39In a July twenty twenty one sit down with prosecutors,
- 5:42Graff admitted to booking massages for Epstein. An internal LEFTBI
- 5:45report on the meeting shows she's admitted it. She admitted
- 5:50she's part of it. She's admitted that she's led these
- 5:52girls into the belly of the beast and what came
- 5:55of it? Nothing, not a damn thing. Why that's question.
- 6:01How come all these people, especially the ones that we
- 6:04have dead to rights with evidence, have gone away with it.
- 6:08Somebody make it make sense. Sharing a separate interview in
- 6:11February twenty twenty, no show that Groff's lawyer, Michael Backner,
- 6:15told investigators his client did not know the massages were sexual,
- 6:18was unaware of the girl she was booking were underage,
- 6:22and thought that when the girls mentioned class he school,
- 6:24they were talking about college. Oh, she had no idea.
- 6:27She didn't know, So it's okay, since one is ignorance
- 6:32an excuse for breaking the law. If it doesn't work
- 6:35for me, it shouldn't work for her. But of course
- 6:38it will. I know, I know, I'm overreacting. There's something
- 6:41to see here, and it's all just a big conspiracy.
- 6:45CT Insider reviewed thousands of pages of DJ documents, including emails,
- 6:50flight confirmations, victim interviews, and photographs for this story. Groff,
- 6:55who managed epscene schedule meetings, and travel for nearly two decades,
- 6:59as consistently denied any knowledge of his sprawling sex trafficking operation.
- 7:04I'm sorry, but I don't believe her. I know it's
- 7:06hard to believe that. I don't believe her, but here
- 7:08we are. In a lawsuit filed in twenty twenty one,
- 7:11Jane Doe claimed that Graff facilitated Epstein's trafficking of her
- 7:15by purchasing plane tickets, sending money, and making appointments, though
- 7:19later dismissed the lawsuit before Groff was required to file
- 7:23a response to the claims, two other victims filed civil
- 7:26suits against Grof, but those litigations were also dismissed. Groff
- 7:31was named as a potential co conspirator of Epstein's in
- 7:35several internal DOJ documents, which range from an FBI list
- 7:39of potential Epstein collaborators to July twenty nineteen emails between
- 7:43FBI agents and prosecutors, and appeared in more than one
- 7:47hundred and fifty thousand files released since last December. Now, look,
- 7:52I'm not going to sit here and tell you that
- 7:54Groff was abusing people like I said earlier. Let's not
- 7:58inflate things. Everybody was taking part in the abuse. Some
- 8:02people were logistics, and Leslie Groff was in charge of
- 8:06all of it. So if she was doing the same
- 8:10thing for El Choppo. Do you think that she'd get
- 8:13this armor, Do you think that she'd be protected the
- 8:16way she is, or do you think she'd be facing
- 8:18a life sentence? But she was never charged with a crime,
- 8:22and the lawsuits filed against her have all been dismissed.
- 8:26The fact that the US Attorney's Office did not prosecute
- 8:28Leslie after she voluntarily spoke with them answering every question
- 8:32posed of her, demonstrates clearly that she had no criminal
- 8:35involvement with Epstein. Backner said, Leslie is simply disgusted by
- 8:40Epstein's conduct and his heart broken by what his victims
- 8:43have endured. That is just wild, absolutely wild. The DOJ
- 8:48didn't prosecute because they didn't want to blow the case open.
- 8:52Nice try, Backner, But let's be real. We've all seen
- 8:54the evidence. And if you think for a minute that
- 8:58Leslie Groff wasn't involved logistically in creating the scheduling, bringing
- 9:04the girls, in setting them up for massages, then you're crazy.
- 9:08She most certainly was, and that puts her smack dab
- 9:11in the middle of the criminal conspiracy. The internal DOJ
- 9:16files indicate that prosecutors and victims believe that Groff, who
- 9:20worked for Epstein from two thousand and one until his
- 9:22arrest and coordinated virtually all of his travel, had helped
- 9:26move his victims to his properties around the globe. And
- 9:29she'll say she had no idea. I had no idea
- 9:32what was going on? Well, too bad, you did it right, man,
- 9:37act prison, see you later. But no, here we are
- 9:41talking about it still all these years later. Groff, who
- 9:47Epstein once described as an extension of his brain, worked
- 9:50for nearly two decades out of his Madison Avenue office
- 9:53in New York City. She was named as a potential
- 9:56co conspirator and shielded from prosecution as part of Epstein's
- 10:00controversial two thousand and eight non prosecution agreement in Florida.
- 10:05Again all to protect the operation itself. They couldn't have
- 10:08the little peons start flipping, right, not while Epstein was alive.
- 10:13Remember Nadia didn't start talking until later on. And if
- 10:16Leslie Groff didn't do anything wrong, why was she protected
- 10:20under the NPA. I'm sure that was just for precaution, right,
- 10:24because everybody gets soaked up like that. And hell, if
- 10:27I get a speeding ticket, maybe I'll just say, hey,
- 10:29the Epstein NPA protects me too. That's how ridiculous this
- 10:34whole thing is. But she'd flown under the radar relative
- 10:38to other Epstein associates, including convicted sex trafficker Glenn Maxwell
- 10:43and alledged recruiter Jean Luc Brunell. There's no alleged Jean
- 10:47Luke Brunell was as evil, disgusting, and despicable as Jeffrey Epstein.
- 10:54And you don't have to write a ledge there, it's
- 10:56a fact. On March third, a House committee investigating Epstein
- 11:00called on Grof to testify before them in June. A
- 11:03spokesperson for the committee said last month that Groff was
- 11:07confirmed for a transcribed interview on June ninth. Well, that's
- 11:11good about time. But do you think they're going to
- 11:16ask her any real questions? Is there going to be
- 11:19anything that comes of it? I hope so. I mean,
- 11:23at the very least, we got her under oath, and
- 11:26that's a step in the right direction. But the problem
- 11:28is that people doing the questioning I don't trust their
- 11:31motivations either. She was Epstein's primary secretary who handled the
- 11:36travel logistics for Epstein, his employees, and the victims who traveled.
- 11:40A DOJ lawyer whose name was redacted, wrote in an
- 11:44internal October twentieth email chain in which prosecutors debated had
- 11:48to handle the share of volume of files mentioned in Groff.
- 11:52And that's another beef I have. Why are these investigators'
- 11:55names being redacted? That wasn't part of the deal. So
- 11:59what we can't go and talk to these people. Nobody
- 12:03can reach out to so and so and ask why
- 12:05the decision was made to do X Y or Z.
- 12:09Seems a bit suspicious. In addition to scheduling massage appointments,
- 12:13Groff would also book flights for girls who traveled to
- 12:16meet Epstein at his various residences. Investigators wrote in a
- 12:19December twenty nineteen memo, drawing on testimony from at least
- 12:23five separate victim interviews, Several partially redacted DOJ documents collected
- 12:29as part of the investigation that led to Epstein's July
- 12:32twenty nineteen arrests on sex trafficking charges shed more light
- 12:37on why prosecutors initially identified Groff, along with Maxwell Brunel
- 12:41and others, as potential co conspirators of Epstein. Well, because
- 12:45they were. That's why. That includes the December twenty nineteen
- 12:50potential co conspirator memo sent by redacted assistant US attorneys
- 12:55to then lead prosecutor Jeffrey Berman, as well as three
- 12:58interviews that the FBI conducted with victims as they were
- 13:01closing in on Epstein in the spring and summer of
- 13:05twenty nineteen. At least half a dozen victims said they
- 13:09were contacted by Groff to schedule massages in which Epstein
- 13:12would solicit or coarse women and girls into sex, and
- 13:16the three said that they were paid for the massages
- 13:19by Groff. The DOJ memo and victim interview show one
- 13:23woman described as both a victim and a recruiter told
- 13:27prosecutors that it was Groff's responsibility to schedule massages in
- 13:31New York City, According to documents, In an April twenty
- 13:35nineteen interview, a victim who said Epstein began assaulting her
- 13:38at fourteen and that she later recruited other girls for him,
- 13:42told investigators that she would call Groff to scheduled times
- 13:45for a massage. I guess acting as a facilitator for
- 13:48a trafficking ring is not criminal anymore, pretty while considering
- 13:52how many people are sitting in prison for the exact
- 13:54same thing. Another victim, who the DOJ memo says was
- 13:58abused by Epstein as an adult, remembered Groff steps away
- 14:01from Epstein's office on one occasion when she was assaulted.
- 14:05She recalls that Groff was right outside the closed door
- 14:08to Epstein's office on one occasion when Epstein forced Redacted
- 14:12to perform oral sex on him, but she does not
- 14:14know whether Groff knew what was happening inside the office,
- 14:18the memo read. In a DOJ memo of a November
- 14:22twenty twenty victim interview, a third victim, who allegedly massaged
- 14:25Epstein and recruited other girls for him, described Groff as
- 14:29a familiar presence in his office who helped screen girls
- 14:32for Epstein. Yeah, she was just somebody that was answering phones, folks.
- 14:36She didn't have a big role here. She wasn't somebody
- 14:39that was a key element of Epstein's enterprise. Redacted would
- 14:43mention different girls names to Leslie, the memo said. Redacted
- 14:47felt it was pretty obvious Leslie knew what was going on.
- 14:51I'm sure she did. Somebody that close to Epstein. The
- 14:55plane is nicknamed Lolita Express. Nobody's talking about it. None
- 14:58of the other girls are chirping. Stop it. That victim
- 15:02also told investigators that on occasion, she called the office
- 15:06to talk to Groff, saying that she needed to speak
- 15:08to Epstein as soon as possible because she needed money
- 15:11to get an abortion. The memo stated Groff was able
- 15:14to get to Epstein on the phone right away, and
- 15:17Epstein gave her a dacted one thousand dollars in an envelope. Well,
- 15:21I wonder why she needed an abortion. I'm pretty sure
- 15:24there was no immaculate conception. In her twenty twenty one
- 15:28interview with prosecutors, Groff described massages as a routine part
- 15:32of Epstein's day. According to an interview summary prepared by prosecutors,
- 15:37she said that when she first started working for Epstein,
- 15:39Maxwell told her that Epstein needed a massage every day.
- 15:43Groff also said scheduling massages was roughly one percent of
- 15:47her job. Well, that's enough to send you to prison.
- 15:50I mean, let's be real. It was presented like it
- 15:53was totally normal. The notes described Groff saying to Groff,
- 15:57making massage appointments was just another appointment we had to
- 16:00make for Epstein. In the victim interviews, several expressed uncertainty
- 16:04about how much Groff was aware of what the massage
- 16:07is entelled. Look, I have a hard time believing she
- 16:10didn't know. She was very close to Epstein, and there
- 16:14were signs, Okay, plenty of signs. Furthermore, she kept working
- 16:19for him after he was arrested. Right, got it. According
- 16:24to notes from the interview Backner gave to investigators in
- 16:27February of twenty twenty, Groff rarely interacted with the victims
- 16:31in person. Doesn't matter. You can't send them an email
- 16:35if they're underage and have them come to Ebstein's house.
- 16:38Are you crazy? Unlike Maxwell, Groff did not travel with
- 16:42Epstein outside of New York City and only visited her
- 16:45boss homes in Paris and the US Virgin Islands on
- 16:47one occasion each while on vacation with her husband. Epstein
- 16:51was not on the island or at his home in
- 16:53Paris when Groff and her husband stayed there. Oh well,
- 16:57in that case, everything's cool, All is forgiven. Imagine your
- 17:01daughter was led into the belly of the beast by
- 17:03Leslie Groff. While Groff herself did not travel with her boss,
- 17:08DOJ records include dozens of emails and plane ticket bookings
- 17:12showing that Groff arranged for women from Eastern European countries.
- 17:17What do I tell you about there? Huh? What do
- 17:19we know about Eastern Europe and Jeffrey Epstein whose names
- 17:23are adacted in the files, to be flown to Epstein's
- 17:25residences in Paris, New York City, Palm Beach, and the
- 17:28US Virgin Islands to meet them. Over nearly a decade,
- 17:32those documents show that Groff coordinated several dozen flights from
- 17:36cities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania to Epstein's properties.
- 17:44Because the names are adapted, it's difficult to determine how
- 17:47many individuals were booked on those flights, but arranging their
- 17:50travel was consistent part of Groff's work as Epstein's personal
- 17:54secretary between twenty twelve and twenty nineteen. Using victims to
- 18:00group more victims was the hallmark of Epstein's trafficking ring
- 18:03after his two thousand and eight conviction for soliciting a
- 18:06child prostitute in Florida, Hold on a child prostitute, buddy,
- 18:10did you really just write that? How could a child
- 18:13be a prostitute? Do yourself a favor and give your
- 18:17head a shake. He increasingly recruited young women from Eastern Europe,
- 18:21who were often more dependent on him for finances, visas,
- 18:24and jobs. Well, at least he got that part right,
- 18:27because that's certainly what Epstein was up to. In the
- 18:30days surrounding Epstein's arrest, prosecutor zeroed in on Groff as
- 18:34a member of Epstein's inner circle. Prosecutors sent the planning
- 18:38email on the eve of Epstein's arrest, which identified Groff,
- 18:41along with several redacted names, as someone we believe that
- 18:45each book massages forum with underage girls, and in the
- 18:49days following the arrest, Groff was served to Grand Jerry
- 18:52subpoena as an alleged co conspirator. But she doesn't know anything, right,
- 18:57no idea come on. In February twenty twenty, Backner met
- 19:02with agents on behalf of Groff, providing a preliminary testimony
- 19:05to absolve his client from any involvement in the trafficking ring.
- 19:10He said that Graff had little to no interaction with
- 19:12the women she booked for massages, and that she did
- 19:15not know there were sexual contact during the massages. In
- 19:18her eyes, Epstein was wacky, bizarre, but not sexual backner
- 19:22told the authorities what an absolute lie, and this is
- 19:26why they didn't charge him with RICO because it would
- 19:28have been so expansive and the blast radius would have
- 19:31been so large they couldn't contain it. Then fifteen months later,
- 19:37it was Groff's turn to speak with federal agents, where
- 19:40she described booking massages and maintaining Epstein's busy social and
- 19:44professional calendar. Groff characterized the relationship between Epstein and Maxwell
- 19:49as volatile and her bosses demanding, saying he sometimes sent
- 19:53her home in tears, but still she seemed to enjoy
- 19:56her work. Yeah, money changes everything, right, the oh a
- 20:00big enough bag. People are willing to do just about anything,
- 20:04Groff thought. The whole office seemed happy, like the employees
- 20:07were happy, and it was a nice place to work,
- 20:09Prosecutors wrote. The nine page summary of the interview does
- 20:14not include questions from agents about Groff booking flights for
- 20:17alleged victims, nor does it discuss her thoughts on Epstein's
- 20:20conviction in two thousand and eight for soliciting a child prostitute.
- 20:25Because it was all part of the plan. Just like
- 20:27I've told you from the beginning, the whole idea was
- 20:31to cover it up. It was never to get to
- 20:33the bottom of it. Plenty of evidence there. If they
- 20:36wanted to do that, they chose not to, and they
- 20:39continue to choose not to. And the whole entire child
- 20:43prostitute thing. Fucking shit, we're not past that yet. How
- 20:47the hell could a child be a prostitute. Groff continued
- 20:52working for Epstein for more than a decade after that conviction,
- 20:54until July twenty nineteen, the month of his arrest. But
- 20:59I'm sure she had no idea, right. Epstein was arrested
- 21:02for what a tax evasion, jaywalking, eating a bagel the
- 21:06wrong way? Oh no, that's right, for sacked crimes. When
- 21:10asked why Groff stayed, Backner told investigators that Epstein was
- 21:13abusive but also charming, and that the work was very
- 21:16interesting making phone calls and scheduling people. Couldn't do that
- 21:20anywhere else. Huh okay, I guess. After Epstein's arrest, prosecutors
- 21:27identified Groff as a possible co conspirator in a December
- 21:31twenty nineteen memo. A follow up DOJ document in April
- 21:34of twenty twenty described Groff as the primary scheduler for
- 21:38massages at Epstein's New York residence. But unlike Maxwell, who
- 21:43was sentenced to twenty years in prison after being convicted
- 21:46of sex trafficking in twenty twenty one and Brunel, who
- 21:49died by suicide in a French prison after being arrested
- 21:52and charged with raping a minor, Groff was never arrested
- 21:56and maintains her innocence to this day. Well, maintain a way, lady,
- 22:02but I think the evidence points somewhere else. And it's
- 22:05going to be real interesting what she has to say
- 22:08when she gives her deposition. And I really wonder just
- 22:11how far Congress is going to push. And as you
- 22:13can imagine, we'll have a few things to say when
- 22:16she gives this deposition. But until then, that's going to
- 22:19do it for this one. All the information that goes
- 22:21with this episode can be found in the description box.