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Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant Lesley Groff took the stand before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday and claimed she knew absolutely nothing about the billionaire sex offender’s crimes. Not a thing. Just an innocent secretary making massage appointments, apparently.
According to Groff, she believed those massage appointments she scheduled were for legitimate therapists, not the underage girls Epstein was exploiting. She called him a “master manipulator” who kept his crimes secret from her. She never saw anything improper. She was heartbroken for the victims, of course, but completely in the dark herself.
Here’s the problem: Epstein’s survivors tell a very different story.
Multiple victims have told the FBI that Groff was their point of contact—the person they called to reach Epstein and schedule those massage sessions where the abuse took place. Government emails from the Epstein files show Groff booking Epstein’s domestic and international travel. She was listed as a potential co-conspirator in the non-prosecution deal Epstein cut with federal prosecutors back in 2008.
“One of the hardest parts for survivors is hearing the people who were closest to Epstein claim they saw nothing,” victim Sharlene Rochard told CNN. “That doesn’t match my experience. Survivors deserve answers, not claims of ignorance.”
Groff has been singing this same tune since 2021, when her lawyers first announced she had “never witnessed anything improper or illegal.” The consistency would be admirable if it weren’t so convenient. Someone who scheduled massages for a man now known to have abused hundreds of women and girls, who coordinated his travel to his various properties, who was close enough to be named a potential co-conspirator—saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing.
How many times are we supposed to believe that everyone in Epstein’s inner circle was simply oblivious? How many assistants, pilots, and associates get to claim ignorance while the victims carry the trauma for life?
The House Oversight Committee is digging into the Epstein files, and testimony like Groff’s only raises more questions than it answers. Someone knew something. Someone always does. The American people deserve the full truth about who enabled Epstein’s crimes and for how long. Platitudes about master manipulators aren’t going to cut it anymore.
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