Opinion
Morning Joe
RacheL Maddow
Deadline: White House
The weekend
NEWSLETTERS
Share this –
News
Lesley Groff, who worked for Epstein for nearly 20 years until he was arrested in 2019, reportedly told the committee she never saw anything improper.
Lesley Groff, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant, denied knowledge of her former boss’s crimes in her transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, the latest witness to testify in the panel’s sprawling Epstein investigation.
“I believe that my testimony will dispel the false notions that because of my employment with Epstein I must have knowingly enabled or conspired with him to commit his evil acts,” she said, according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by MS NOW. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Groff, who worked for Epstein for 18 years until he was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges, told lawmakers in her opening statement that she never socialized with Epstein or his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. She described Epstein as “a master manipulator and deceiver who separated his legitimate life from his secret life as an abuser and made sure that as his secretary, those two worlds did not collide.”
Several Democrats on the committee have said that Groff’s testimony was not credible.
“Leslie Groff maintained today that she never once even had a suspicion that perhaps he was abusing women and girls; I find it unbelievable — absolutely unbelievable, not remotely credible,” Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., told MS NOW’s “The Weeknight.”
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., told reporters earlier Tuesday during a break in the interview that Groff’s characterization of their relationship was “highly inconsistent.”
“He was a registered sex offender, and she arranged young women for massages with a registered sex offender, and I just question whether … she can rightfully and truthfully maintain that she saw nothing improper in that,” he said.
According to her opening statement, Groff told lawmakers she made massage appointments for Epstein almost daily. She said she never met any of the masseuses, and none of them told her that they were minors or that they were being sexually abused. “Nothing I heard or saw led me to believe otherwise,” she said in her statement.
Groff also said she arranged phone calls between Epstein and Donald Trump, according to Lynch. Groff did not say what year that happened, but it was before Trump became president, Lynch said. (Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein in the 2000s, and he has not been charged or officially accused in court of crimes related to the Epstein files.)
Groff’s name appears more than 160,000 times in the Epstein files released by the Justice Department. She was one of the most present people in Epstein’s orbit, arranging his meetings with prominent figures and setting up massages for him with women.
Marina Lacerda, who was abused by Epstein as a minor, said at a news conference in September 2025 that Groff “would call me and tell me that I needed to be at the house so often that I ended up dropping out of high school before ninth grade.”
Notably, House Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben was also in attendance for the first nearly 1.5 hours of Groff’s interview. The chaplain has not been seen at the committee’s previous hearings on Epstein.
When asked why she was there, Kibben told MS NOW: “Pastoral care is confidential.”
Groff does not face any criminal charges related to the late financier. Her attorney, Michael Bachner, previously said in a statement that “she had no criminal involvement with Epstein.”
“Lesley is simply disgusted by Epstein’s conduct and is heartbroken by what his victims endured,” Bachner said.
Groff is the latest Epstein witness to appear before the panel as part of its investigation into the late sex offender, with billionaire Bill Gates scheduled to testify before the committee on Wednesday. Like the other interviews, Groff’s will be transcribed and made public at a later date.
Mychael Schnell
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.
Clarissa-Jan Lim
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
Lillie Boudreaux
© 2026 Versant Media, LLC
Leave a Reply