Various information can be found in the Epstein files, and some of them are very delicate. Apart from Jeffrey Epstein himself, it is surprising what name appears there most often. It is not Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell or Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, but the name of Lesley Groff, the assistant to the convicted sex offender.
In the millions of documents detailing Epstein’s correspondence that have been released by the US Department of Justice, Groff’s name appears more than 160,000 times. By comparison, the name of Epstein’s accountant, Richard Kahn, appears 53,000 times, while Donald and Melania Trump are far behind with 38,000 occurrences.
This appears in coverage of the British newspaper Telegraph.
It says that Groff, who is 58, has always maintained that she was deliberately kept out of her boss’s crimes, but others do not believe those statements, saying it is impossible that someone so close to Epstein was unaware of his wrongdoing.
In interviews, Epstein said his assistants were “an extension of his brain,” while Groff, who worked for the financier and child abuser for nearly two decades, said she knew what he was thinking.
Lesley Groff, center, appears before the Board of Supervisors last week.
AFP/Chip Somodevilla
Many kurls are yet to come to the grave
Over the weekend, Groff’s role in Epstein’s world came under scrutiny when she appeared before the House Oversight Committee in Washington. Epstein’s victims, law enforcement officials and the millions who have followed the case had hoped that Groff’s testimony could shed light on a case that has yet to be unearthed. However, these people were probably disappointed. Although the hearing was held behind closed doors, CNN reported that Groff told the panel she had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and described him as a master manipulator. She said she was not sexually assaulted by Epstein and that she believed the massage appointments she made for him with young women and girls were for massage therapists.
“It didn’t take long with Jeffrey Epstein to know what he was up to, and she was with him for years,” says Nick Bryant, an investigative journalist who published Epstein’s little black book of contacts in 2015.
Groff played an absolutely key role in Epstein’s life. She managed all the threads between 2001 and 2019; handled Epstein’s diary, his travels, meetings, phone calls, meals and social events, not to mention his frequent massage orders.
She and her boss developed the kind of smooth working relationship necessary in a high-level assistant role, the Telegraph reports.
Jeffrey Epstein.
AFP
“I know what he’s thinking,” she told The New York Times in 2005, “and I know when I have to be quick. It’s a good flow we’re in.” In the same article, Epstein said his assistants were “extensions of (his) brain” and “social prostheses”, adding that “their intuition is something I don’t have”.
While the lives of others in Epstein’s inner circle have been turned upside down by their ties to the financier, Groff appears to have moved on relatively unperturbed. She lives a quiet life in New Canaan, a town in Connecticut, where she has occasionally been photographed practicing yoga or walking her dog. She has never been charged with a crime and has always maintained, through her lawyers, that she knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity and has been as shocked as the rest of the world by the revelations that continue to emerge about him.
Lawyers say she is innocent
“It is our firm position that Epstein purposefully kept Lesley isolated from his criminal behavior because he had no reason to believe her and every reason to lie,” her attorney, Michael Bachner, said in a statement to reporters earlier this year. “Epstein lived in two worlds – one legal and one not – and made sure they didn’t collide … Lesley now realizes that Epstein made her the face of his legal world.” The statement also emphasized that Groff “never witnessed or was told anything illegal in connection with (this) massage.”
Nevertheless, it was considered right to call her for questioning. It is believed that the massage bookings in question could weigh heavily on the progress of the case.
Epstein’s “massages” were anything but normal: they were often pretexts for sex with young women, some underage – in some cases as young as 14. During an FBI hearing, one of Epstein’s victims, who was under 18 at the time of the crimes, claimed that Groff arranged the massage sessions, which “became immediately sexual.” The victim believed it was “pretty obvious that Lesley knew what was going on”. She claimed that Groff had arranged a payment from Epstein to cover the abortion, as well as hotel accommodation.
