Who is Lesley Groff, Jeffrey Epstein's former assistant interviewed in House probe?

Lesley Groff, longtime assistant to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sat for a closed-door transcribed interview on June 9 before the House Oversight Committee.

Groff worked for Epstein from 2001 to July 2019, when the late, disgraced financier was arrested on sex-trafficking charges. Her name appears more than 160,000 times in the millions of documents the Justice Department has released related to Epstein.

Groff has never been charged with a crime. Despite working closely with Epstein, she maintains that she was unaware of his illicit activities, intentionally kept "on the outside of his perverted life."

"I would never have sat silent if I knew of his crimes," she told the committee.

According to the transcript released June 23, Groff said that since Epstein's 2019 arrest, she has struggled to sleep and eat, has been shunned by friends and has received death threats. She said she'll have to live with the regret of having worked for Epstein while he abused women.

"But what I cannot and should not live with are the false innuendos and accusations that I knowingly aided his evil conduct," she said in her opening statement.

Groff said in hindsight, Epstein was a "master manipulator and deceiver" who separated his business life and life as an abuser. She said she "hardly" had a relationship with Epstein describing it as "professional."

Throughout the interview, Groff repeatedly said she never met any of the women she scheduled for massages with Epstein and did not know that they were minors or being sexually abused.

READ MORE: Read the House transcripts of Bill Gates and Lesley Groff's interviews in Epstein probe

Read Groff's testimony by clicking below:

Committee members questioned Groff's statements.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said "it's difficult to understand how" Groff could continue to schedule appointments for Epstein with young women after his 2006 arrest on charges of soliciting prostitution "and not ever once doubt that there could be something happening in those moments."

Groff said she believed Epstein, who told her he was arrested because he had been blackmailed. She also noted that all of his "smart" business associates continued to meet and remain friendly with him, despite his guilty plea.

She maintained that she never suspected any of the masseuses were minors, didn't find it unusual that Epstein had a list of names of dozens of masseuses or that she received emails with photos of young women whom people would recommend Epstein meet.

A senior counsel for the committee asked Groff whether she ever expressed concern to Epstein about him housing foreign women in apartments he owned.

"This committee is attempting to understand the circle of people that allowed for Mr. Epstein to continue to abuse young women and girls beyond his arrest," Brittany Brignac said.

"I did not question him on his business," Groff responded.

Groff's voluntary interview was part of the committee's ongoing investigation into the federal government's handling of cases involving Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Another one of Epstein's assistants, Sarah Kellen, testified before the committee in May.

READ MORE: Former Epstein assistant Sarah Kellen testified before the House committee. Here's what we know

Other notable figures who have provided testimony include former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, former Attorney General Pam Bondi and a former prison guard who was working the night before the financier was found dead in his cell.

From across the political spectrum and the worlds of finance, entertainment and beyond, a number of powerful figures have emerged in the Epstein documents released by the DOJ. Inclusion in the files does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing, but the fallout has led to some high-profile resignations and calls for more accountability.

Why did the committee want to talk to Groff?

Groff worked for Epstein for nearly two decades in New York, managing his schedule, including by setting up daily massages for him. According to Epstein's 2019 indictment on sex-trafficking charges, massages were how his survivors were initially recruited.

Epstein paid women and girls for the massages, "which would be performed nude or partially nude, would become increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts."

In her opening statement, Groff said that she was told that "Mr. Epstein's day included a morning muffin, a private yoga lesson, and a massage." She added that scheduling the massages was "just like another appointment. It was like going to the gym. It was very normal."

Maxwell instructed Groff not to fraternize with Epstein or the people she spoke with on the phone, including Epstein's friends, according to Groff's 2021 interview with prosecutors. A few weeks into working for Epstein, Groff went to a party she was invited to through work. Epstein "torched" her after finding out and threatened to fire her.

Groff recalled being told that mistakes were not tolerated and Epstein telling her she ruined his whole day after she made a scheduling error.

Publicly, Epstein described Groff and his other assistants as "an extension of my brain," in a 2005 interview with The New York Times. In the same interview, Epstein said he bought Groff a Mercedes-Benz and agreed to pay for a full-time nanny after Groff got pregnant.

"There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood," Epstein said.

The controversial 2008 non-prosecution agreement Epstein entered into with the Justice Department named Groff as a potential co-conspirator that the U.S. "will not institute any criminal charges against."

Following Epstein's 2019 death by suicide, the Justice Department continued investigating people connected to him, including Groff. A 2019 Justice Department list of Epstein family and associates named Groff as a "co-conspirator." The list also included Maxwell.

A memo describing the department's investigation after Epstein's suicide details Groff's interactions with Epstein's survivors, including scheduling appointments, arranging travel and completing payments.

A survivor, whose name is redacted in the document, recalled Groff sitting outside Epstein's office while he forced the survivor "to perform oral sex on him," however the survivor said she didn't know whether Groff knew what was happening inside the office.

The Justice Department has never charged Groff with any crime connected to Epstein. However, Groff was named in several lawsuits brought forth by survivors. The lawsuits were dismissed.

What has Groff said about her connections to Epstein?

Groff has refrained from speaking publicly about her time working for Epstein, but her lawyers have maintained her innocence.

"This is a true vindication for our client Lesley Groff who had no knowledge and no participation in any of these horrific crimes," Groff's lawyers said in a 2020 statement, after one of Epstein's survivors dropped a case against Groff.

According to that statement, Groff never witnessed anything illegal, and she found out about Epstein's crimes "when the rest of the world did."

Based on Groff's testimony and a subsequent meeting with survivors, committee chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said he now wants to interview Alan Dershowitz. The high-profile attorney, who represented both Epstein and President Donald Trump, appears in the files thousands of times.