← The Epstein Chronicles
The Epstein Chronicles
Lesley Groff And The Transcript From Her Epstein Related Trip to Congress (Part 11) (7/6/26)
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Lesley Groff told the House Oversight Committee that she worked for Jeffrey Epstein from February 2001 until July 2019 as his secretary/administrative assistant, handling scheduling, calls, travel coordination, calendars, and staff logistics. Her...
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and welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up where we left off with the Leslie Groff interview with Congress. Ms. Tolan question a few more questions on gifts generally. Did you ever facilitate payment for school tuition for any woman or girl associated with Jeffrey Epstein? I did not facilitate payment. Question did you purchase, order or in any way help procure gifts for any of the following individuals? Ghislaine Maxwell Answer No Leon Black Answer no Doug Band Answer no. Bill Gates Answer no. Question and as we have mentioned, part of the committee's investigation is trying to understand how Mr. Epstein sought to curry favor with prominent individuals. Are there any other prominent individual that Mr. Epstein would send expensive or frequent gifts to? Answer in the government? Question Just any prominent individual? Answer There was a time when him and Tommy Mottola used to send each other gifts, but that's all I can remember. Question and you what kind of gifts? Answer I don't know. Maybe a four wheeler. I don't remember. I felt like they were just trying to give each other outdo one another with a better gift at one time. Question did you have a credit card for work? Answer no. Question did you ever use your personal credit card for making purchases? Answer no. Ms. Brak were you reimbursed for purchases? Grof no. Brignac Were you expected to cover your own travel and expenses related to your position? Gro if. If I was, I barely traveled. But no, if I did travel, that would be reimbursed. Can I have one more word? Grof yeah, go. Off the record now. They're back. Brigniak in your role, did you ever coordinate or facilitate trips for foreign women or girls? Answer I would coordinate airfare for women and men to see Mr. Epstein. Question could you walk me through that process? Answer sure. Mr. Epstein would direct me to give me a name and ask me to coordinate a flight for someone to wherever it was that they needed to fly from to go visit him. Question why? Answer he did Not. Tell me that question you never asked. Answer no question. Did you ever identify, recruit, screen, interview or recommend any foreign women or girls for meetings or employment with Mr. Epstein or his associates? Answer no question. Did you ever assist anyone else to recruit a foreign woman or girl? Answer no question. How are these women identified that you did assist in coordinating travel for? I don't know. Who provided their names and contact information? Mr. Epstein. Who made the final determination on whether a young woman or girl received visa sponsorship? I don't know. Do you have any role in a visa sponsorship process? No. Kimmins. Can I back up? She asked you a question. If you ever coordinated the introduction of any foreign nationals and you said no. Groff. The introduction of Timmins, what was the question? Have you ever participated in visa sponsorship for a foreign woman or girl? Timmins. Did you ever identify, recruit, screen or recommend foreign women or girls for employment or meetings with Mr. Epstein or his associates? Groff. No. Timmons. Were you ever involved in the process? Grof. No. Timmins. On May 1, 2012, you're emailing back and forth regarding a girl from Ukraine. Darling, here's a picture of the new girl. She's 21, very sweet and lovely. Let me know when you receive them, please. I took them from her portfolio. Maybe the quality is not so good, but I think you can still see everything. So you have a person. Their names are redacted here and I'm not going to use their name, but the person is Eastern Europe that is communicating with you, not with Mr. Epstein and providing photos of a girl. And it seems that, I mean, there's the 19 year old girl and there's the 21 year old girl. So how do you reconcile the email? I mean, we can get the printout for you. That seems like what you're doing. Grof. No. Timmons. So what was the purpose of the communication? Grof. I don't recall the purpose or what it was. To me it sounds like this was models or possibly, I don't know, Timmons. Okay, I saw it on the document. We'll get it printed. Tolan. And to follow up on that point, I'll now introduce Majority Exhibit 2, Tolan. We'll give it a second to get passed out, but this is a chain of emails between Ms. Groff and a redacted name. These emails are dated April 18, 2012 and the subject line reads First Girl redacted. The Bates number is EFTA 0202 7638. Will give you a moment to review. Tolan. Question this is an email that was just being referenced. If you read it from the bottom up, the first email states, hi, Leslie, I'm so sorry in front of Jeffrey for my delay, I'm sending you pictures of two of my friends now. They're both Russians. Winky face. Here's first, her name is redacted, and it says there's another name listed below. And on the back of the page, page two, there's an entirely redacted image. Answer. Okay. Question. And then, Ms. Groff, you respond on the same day with just a winky face. So just for the record, to be clear, are you familiar with this email? Answer, I don't recall it, but I think I said, no worries. Thanks, and someone else had the winky face. Question. Okay, thank you. Answer. I don't recall this email. The date seems to suggest that it's possible he was looking for new traveling assistance. Timmins. Sorry. Let's be very clear. He was attempting to find people that he was going to Sex and Human Traffic for the next decade. So, I mean, yeah, it's an assistant, but that's what he was doing. Ms. Bochner, are you asking if she knew it? Timmons. I just. I don't like people using that word, assistant. I correct people when they say it because it's not accurate. She's an assistant, Mr. Whitcomb. She's testifying, sir. You're not. Mr. Bochner, in all fairness, she's not disputing what Jeffrey Epstein did. If you're asking what she knew back then, she'll gladly answer the question, but she's not disputing that. Mr. Epstein, was this person doing what you're claiming she was doing, or he was doing? Mr. Timmons, and that was to find culpability in the process. Bachner understood. Timmons. When she's facilitating the flow of information and people. That's why we're here. Bachner understood. Well, the issue is whether there was knowledge or not, which he doesn't have. Timmins. Correct. Toland. Question. So why was this individual sending you images of other women? Answer. I don't know. Question. Did you ask for the photos? Answer. No. Question. Did Mr. Epstein ask for the photo? Answer, I don't know. Question. Were you aware that this is. This is a nude photo, do you recall? Answer. No. Brignac. Why would he need a photograph in order to recruit an assistant? Grof. I don't know that this was to get a traveling assistant. I said it's possible that it was. He was always wanting to find better, and I don't Know what it was for. I also know that he was very, very connected to the modeling world. He was in business with Jean Luc Brunel as well as other agencies. Brainiak. This is in 2012 after he cut ties with Les Wexner. So I don't think you would have thought this was for a modeling position. What did you mean by your winky face, Ms. Groff? That's not my winky face. It's whoever sent the email. Ms. Tolan. And do you know how this individual was in the photo? I do not. What did you do with this image after I probably forwarded to Mr. Epstein. Did this happen on multiple occasions? How often were you receiving images of women to give to Mr. Epstein? Not often. Ms. Tolan, I'll now introduce Majority Exhibit 3. This is another email chain dated May 1, 2012, between Ms. Groff and another redacted email address with the subject line Jeffrey Epstein. The Bates number is EFTA 01884789. I'll give you a moment to review this one as well. Bochner. Okay, Tolan. I'll direct your attention to the bottom of page one, where the email reads, dear Leslie, just wanted to make sure you got the new photo. Let me know, please. To which you appear to respond that you have not received any new photos. And the email address, which is redacted, says they'll try to send the email again. Then the following email near the top of the page reads, darling, here's the picture of a new girl, redacted. She's 21, very sweet and lovely. Let me know you receive them, please. I took them from her portfolio, so maybe the quality is not so good, but I think you can still see everything with a winky face. Ms. Groff, are you familiar with this email? I am not. Since we've been getting ready to see you, I've seen this email. To me, I sound. It sounds like she's a model. Question. And what was the purpose of these images? To send to Mr. Epstein? I would think so, yes. Brignac, why would you be sending modeling photos to Mr. Epstein? Because he had a business relationship with Jean Luc Vernel and Kate's faith with Next Modeling. And he knew lots and lots of models. Naomi Campbell, Pentro Noa, Tatiana Stepanova. Famous models. It made sense to me that he'd be helping coordinate models. Question, did you ever see these women receive job offers or modeling contracts? Answer. I don't recall there. That was not something that was discussed with him. Question, did you have any concerns with sending him these photos after he was arrested and charged and indicted for soliciting prostitution of minors? Answer. No, Ms. Tolan. And all of the images that are attached have facial redactions. However, the image on what should be page seven, the second to last, the very last physical image, second to last image is clearly a full body redaction. Is it because the woman was nude in this photo? Answer. I don't know. I don't remember the photo. But I don't believe I ever saw nude photos. Question. Did you ever. The email states that she was 21. Did you ever verify the age of the individual? I don't know. And did you forward these images to Jeffrey Epstein? I would think I did. It says, to Jeffrey Epstein. Brignac. Ms. Grof, have you ever served or sponsored a foreign woman for a girl's visa? Grof. No. Brignac. I'm going to enter Majority Exhibit 4, which is EFTA 020625. Excuse me. 02062951. This is an email from you to Amex Centurion Travel dated January 14, 2016. Ms. Brignac. The email reads, Natasha, we need to find a flight that departs Rome and goes to London on the 29th. For redacted. This flight should depart around the same time the flight we're holding for Rome to Miami. No return flight for this flight. This is a decoy flight. She will not really take it, but she needs to show it on the itinerary for this flight. Can you put something together for me? I'm going to give you a moment to review this. Ms. Bochner, could he have just one second? Goes off the record now. They're back. Bochner. We're ready. Ms. Brignac. Question. What's a decoy flight? Answer. It means she's not going to take the flight. Question. Did you regularly engage in requesting decoy flights for securing visas? No. How many times have you engaged in this practice? Mr. With all due respect, there's no indication it was to obtain a visa. Okay. How many times did you engage in the practice of registering decoy flights? Ms. Groff, this is the only decoy flight that I recall. And the only reason I recall it is because while getting ready for to come speak with y' all voluntarily, I saw this email along with others about the trip. Ms. Tolan, you said it was a decoy flight because she wasn't going. She was not going to take it. Why? Grof. Right. So this person, the woman, wanted to take a flight to Mr. Epstein's. She did not want to tell her parents that she was going to take this flight. She wanted to keep the flight that was taking her to London and have a different flight, though, take her really to see Mr. Epstein. I don't know why she didn't want to tell her parents, but this was not for a visa. Ms. Brignac, I'm entering Majority Exhibit 5 into the record, which is marked EFTA 00501622 through EFTA 00501625. Ms. Brignac, these emails are between you and redacted an executive travel counselor about paying for flights for a hotel for a woman with her visa, dated December 17 and 18, 2012. I'll give you a moment to review. Question who was redacted? Answer she was the MX Centurion rep. Question how did you meet her? Answer I never met her in person. She was somebody that I was told was going to be our rep. Answer by who or Question by who? Answer it was a long time ago. I don't know how she came to be the rep. Question did Mr. Epstein introduce you to her? Answer I don't think he introduced me to her. I'm sure he may have just called one day and said that she was now going to be our rep. I really don't recall how it happened. Question how many people at Amex did you deal with? Answer I dealt with her mostly, but if she was on vacation or sick or something, someone else would take her spot. Question in this exhibit, you send an email that states redacted, has an interview with the consulate at 10:30. She needs proof of a hotel stay and air for this meeting. If any way you can do faster would really appreciate it. What was the reason for this individual's travel? I don't know. I think that this was an assistant of Mr. Epstein that wanted to get her visa. Question and you assisted in facilitating that visa? The only thing I facilitated was getting her a ticket and a hotel room reservation. That was it. But we can agree that she needed that ticket and hotel reservation in order to secure a visa. I was directed to please purchase it for her. Question what were you told was the purpose of the woman's travel? I don't think I was told. It looks to me like she needed to get a visa and she was requesting it. And that's it? I was asked to get her a ticket. I was dealing with Amex Centurion. That's it. Question Is this an example of a decoy flight? Answer no. Question why did you ask if it would be fully refundable? I don't recall. Maybe. I was asked to ask if it would be fully refundable. Answer, who paid for the travel? Answer, I don't know. Question, who paid for a visa application? Answer, I don't know. Question, did these women meet with Mr. Epstein upon their arrival to the US Answer I don't know. I'm not positive who this even is. I believe it was a traveling assistant, but I don't know. Question did you facilitate lodging for any of the women who entered the US On a visa? Answer, it's possible that I was directed to provide them and then an apartment or a hotel room? Question Were any of these women scheduled to give massages? Answer, I don't know. Question Was this woman ever identified as a victim of Mr. Epstein? Answer, I don't know who this is. It's redacted. Sorry. Question Were any of these women that you work with to secure a visa identified as a victim of Mr. Epstein? Answer, I believe is traveling assistants are all victims now. Yeah. Question who else did you facilitate housing for? I didn't facilitate housing. If I was directed and asked to set aside an apartment, I would do that. All right, folks, we're going to wrap up right here, and in the next episode, we're going to pick up where we left off. All the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.