Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive assistant told the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday that she often set up phone calls between Donald Trump and Epstein. However, she also mentioned that she wasn’t aware of Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes during the 18 years she worked for him.
Lesley Groff was questioned for several hours in private on Capitol Hill.
According to sources, CNN reported that Groff described Epstein as a very skilled manipulator who believed the massage appointments she arranged with young women and girls were actually done by real massage therapists.
House Oversight Committee member Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) told CNN’s Boris Sanchez that she found Groff’s testimony hard to believe.
“I mean, we’ve been asking her tough questions for many hours.
The interview is still being recorded, and while she keeps repeating herself, what’s hard to believe is someone who was so closely connected with Epstein for 18 years—before and even 10 years after he was first convicted in 2008 and got a special deal. That’s what is really hard to believe,” Ansari said.
“That’s also why we believe as Oversight Democrats, it’s so important to have these interviews in front of the American people, either as a deposition or a hearing.
It should be public for the American people,” Ansari added, saying, “I believe when Democrats are in charge, we will have to bring every single one of these people back under oath to testify again.”
Ansari said Groff “did anything that Jeffrey Epstein told her to do,” including setting up “all of his calls with important, high-profile people.
She was, just as I left the room, being asked about setting up calls with Donald Trump before their alleged falling out, and she said that she did that about once every three months before that time period.”
“And did she know anything about the nature of their conversations?
Did she reveal any of that?” Sanchez asked.
“She would say nothing about that,” Ansari said.
“She would say, ‘I don’t recall,’ or ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘No, I wasn’t aware.’ You’ll see those words many, many, many times in the transcript,” she added.
President Trump has repeatedly said he did nothing wrong in connection with his friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019.
About the Author
