The House Oversight Committee has mentioned with Jeffrey Epstein survivors the potential of the ladies offering affidavits about longtime Epstein assistant Lesley Groff – approaching the heels of a number of survivors telling NCS that Groff had lied to the committee final month.
The ongoing deliberations between the committee and Epstein survivors had been confirmed to NCS by three sources conversant in the matter and haven’t been beforehand reported. One Epstein survivor and two members of the family of one other sufferer additionally told NCS that they had been requested by the committee to comb via the transcript of Groff’s interview with the panel and alert the committee to something that appears problematic.
These developments sign that the committee is taking the accounts of Epstein survivors critically and making ready to carry Groff accountable if she is discovered to have lied to Congress. While it isn’t clear what further steps, if any, the committee may finally take associated to Groff, mendacity to Congress is a criminal offense. Committee investigators have additionally been poring over Groff’s testimony and references within the Epstein information to find out whether or not Groff was truthful.
NCS has reached out to Groff’s lawyer for remark. They didn’t reply to NCS’s earlier request for remark about what survivors mentioned about her interview with Congress.
Groff labored for Epstein for nearly 20 years and managed each element of Epstein’s day-to-day schedule, making her transcribed interview session with the House Oversight Committee in June a major a part of Congress’ ongoing investigation into Epstein. She has denied any data of Epstein’s crimes, and told lawmakers final month that she had been duped by a “master manipulator and deceiver.”
But the discharge of her interview transcript drew outrage from Epstein survivors. NCS reported on survivors taking issue with a few of Groff’s key claims, together with her insistence that she by no means met any of the women and girls whom she organized to present massages to Epstein.
Six Epstein survivors beforehand told NCS they did meet Groff in particular person and had been dismayed to study of Groff’s denial.
Lara Blume McGee, who says she met Epstein as an aspiring mannequin and was abused from 2001 to 2003, mentioned she remembers assembly Groff at the least twice at Epstein’s townhouse, whereas Lisa Phillips, who says she was in her early 20s when she first met Epstein, told NCS: “Of course I’ve met her in person.”
Groff additionally repeatedly told lawmakers that she by no means requested for or knew the ages of the women and younger ladies who got here to see Epstein, together with the truth that a few of them had been minors. She additionally mentioned she was by no means conscious that some had been coming from native excessive faculties.
Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda told NCS that Groff recurrently requested her detailed questions about new women that Lacerda deliberate to convey to Epstein, and that Groff was delicate to Epstein’s choice for youthful women – a lot in order that she began asking Lacerda to inform her mates to convey their college IDs to their periods with Epstein.
“She would ask, ‘What does the girl look like? Where is she from? How old is she?’ over the phone,” Lacerda mentioned.
Another survivor, Sharlene Rochard, mentioned it was not potential that Groff didn’t know her age, as a result of she had Rochard’s passport data to plan journey. “Of course she knew how old we were because she had to look at our IDs to book our flight,” Rochard mentioned.
One nameless girl mentioned she was additionally “100 percent” sure Groff knew that she was a minor. “I went to a private Catholic school and she would always ask me to leave school early,” she mentioned. Epstein appreciated to see her in her college uniform, and that she mentioned there have been many occasions when Groff noticed her carrying her uniform.
Survivors mentioned Groff additionally was not telling the reality when she mentioned she by no means immediately paid the women and girls; some described receiving contemporary money in white envelopes from Groff throughout their years of abuse.
Lacedra, who mentioned she was simply shy of turning 14 when she first met Epstein, told NCS Wednesday that she could be glad to offer an affidavit to the oversight committee about Groff.
The committee didn’t remark for this story. A spokeswoman for the committee beforehand told NCS that the committee is “currently reviewing Ms. Groff’s transcript against the available evidence.” She added: “We welcome any additional evidence from individuals who possess information.”