Former Epstein executive secretary tells Oversight panel he was 'master manipulator'

Lesley Groff appeared as part of the committee's inquiry into Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein's longtime executive secretary Lesley Groff told the House Oversight Committee Tuesday that the convicted sex offender was a "master manipulator" and that she was unaware of his crimes, according to her prepared opening remarks and multiple sources familiar with her closed-door testimony.

Groff appeared as part of the committee's ongoing inquiry into the federal government's handling of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which to date has included interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Epstein's longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a prison guard who was on duty the night Epstein died in his jail cell.

In her prepared opening remarks, Groff said she hoped her testimony would "dispel the false notions" that she "knowingly enabled or conspired with him to commit his evil acts."

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Groff said, according to a copy of the remarks shared with ABC News.

Groff said that since Epstein's arrest in 2019, she has struggled to sleep and eat, been the target of harassment and death threats, and been "shunned" by many of her friends and acquaintances.

Groff, who worked for Epstein in New York for more than 18 years, was once described by her boss as an "extension of my brain."

She was one of four women listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein's controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007, which she said, "remains her scarlet letter."

"I am not a conspirator and I never would have agreed to this language," Groff said in her prepared testimony.

Among her job requirements were scheduling Epstein's frequent meetings with celebrities, scientists and politicians, booking Epstein's daily massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging travel for women linked to Epstein.

Groff said she was told when hired that Epstein's typical day included a morning muffin, yoga and a massage. She said she made daily massage appointments for Epstein, but "never met any of the masseuses" and never heard from these women or from anyone else that they were minors or that they were sexually abused.

Groff also told lawmakers Tuesday that she never had a romantic or sexual relationship with Epstein and said the message appointments she scheduled for Epstein with young women and girls were with massage therapists, a source said.

Groff could not recall scheduling massages for anyone other than Epstein and former Goldman Sachs chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler at a spa, and said the masseuses were both male and female, sources said. She testified that she would receive the names of the massage therapists from Epstein, and that he instructed her to schedule the massages.

Sources said Groff told lawmakers that she scheduled most of the massages for Epstein's New York residence. Groff testified that she never witnessed or knew of any sexual abuse.

Groff testified that she never met a single massage therapist in person and believes that Epstein -- or Bella Klein, a one-time Epstein associate -- would pay them with "petty cash," sources said. Groff told lawmakers that she would occasionally send cash via couriers, said sources.

Groff said that from the moment she was hired in 2001, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell "established guardrails" and made it clear that she was replaceable.

She said she was told never to associate with their friends.

"Their business was none of my business," she said she was told. She recalled that she was once "torched" by Epstein after he found out she had attended a party with one of his contacts, but he stopped short of firing her.

"In hindsight, I wish he had fired me," she said.

Groff explained that she did not leave her job with Epstein after his arrest in 2006, because Epstein lied to her and "insisted that he had been blackmailed and set up," she said in her prepared remarks.

"It was a shakedown, he claimed, for money," she said. "In my mind, that was the reasons that he was treated so leniently by law-enforcement for such a serious crime."

She described her now-deceased former boss as a "master manipulator and deceiver who separated his legitimate life from his secret life as an abuser" and made sure "those two worlds did not collide."

"Members of the Committee, my heart breaks for these women. I believe them," Groff said in concluding her opening remarks. "Words cannot express how badly I feel that I was employed by Mr. Epstein during the time he abused these women. I will live with this horrible feeling for the rest of my life. But what I cannot and should not live with are the false innuendos and accusations that I knowingly aided his evil conduct."

Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee's ranking Democrat, questioned the honesty of some of Groff's answers while speaking to reporters Wednesday.

"I think that there have been numerous interviews that we've conducted where I found the witness to be not credible, and certainly to spend 18 years with someone, and to not remember or have not really acknowledged the fact that there was rape and trafficking and abuse of minors happening? This is a woman who knew that Jeffrey Epstein had pleaded guilty of a horrific crime, and then continued to work for him for many years after," Garcia said.

"She provided a lot of names of individuals that worked in the Epstein orbit, many of whom we've heard from -- from other survivors -- that we want to speak with, and so there's going to be a lot of interviews ahead for us to sit down with and really get more information about what really happened and who knew what," he added.

Last September at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda specifically called out Groff, alleging that Groff had called her so many times to go to Epstein's place for a massage that she dropped out of high school before the ninth grade.

Lacerda -- who was one of the key witnesses that led to Epstein's 2019 indictment for child sex trafficking -- told ABC News in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.

"Anything that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein," Lacerda told ABC News in an interview, "had to go through Lesley Groff."

Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined comment in advance of her appearance on Capitol Hill. He previously told ABC News that Groff "never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever."

"Ms. Groff, a parent herself, is incredibly shocked and deeply upset about the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein," Bachner said.

After Epstein's arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors in New York included Groff in a list of potential co-conspirators and sent her a subpoena. Bachner informed the government, just four days after Epstein's arrest, that his client "would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination" if called to appear before a grand jury.

Prosecutors informed her lawyers that "numerous victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was responsible for scheduling massages during which they were sexually abused," and that she should consider cooperating with the investigation, according to DOJ records released in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Groff, now 59, eventually interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that "making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make" for Epstein, and said that scheduling massages was "around 1%" of her job.

Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told the FBI she was immediately struck by Epstein's lifestyle and the company he kept, describing it as "pretty incredible to see all the people Epstein dealt with in politics, television, et cetera."

"Groff felt, 'Wow,'" according to an FBI account of her interview.

Groff was initially paid a salary of $60,000 a year, but saw it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein four years later, DOJ records show.

The New York Times reported in 2005 that Epstein bought Groff a new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to ensure she would keep working for him.

"There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood," Epstein said of Groff, according to the newspaper's account.

Banking records included in the DOJ's Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.

When Epstein was arrested a second time in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.

"She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out," Bachner wrote.