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The Epstein Chronicles
Lesley Groff And The Transcript From Her Epstein Related Trip to Congress (Part 14) (7/11/26)
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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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What's up, everyone? And welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to get right back to the Leslie Groff transcript from her meeting with Congress. Question. I'd like to ask you a few more questions about your work for Mr. Epstein. Booking travel. As part of your employment for Mr. Epstein, you arrange domestic and international travel for girls and young women, correct? For women, yes. Question. And not for girls? I don't believe I ever made any travel. When you say girls, what do you mean? Minors? Question. Yes. Individuals. Women under the age of 18. So girls? Answer. No. Question. During the period that you worked for Mr. Epstein, approximately how many young women do you think that you arrange travel for, including flights, hotels, and any other kind of travel? Answer. It's a difficult question. Over the course of my entire time with them, I really don't know. Question. If you had to estimate, would it be dozens, hundreds, thousands? Answer. Not thousands. No. And some people would be. It was usually his traveling assistants that would be going to see him. But it's very difficult for me to try to come up with a number. It was not thousands. It was not hundreds of. I don't know, 50, 70, 50? I don't know. Mr. Buckner, don't speculate if you don't know the answers. You don't know, Ms. Groff? Yeah, I don't know. Question. So you talked about his travel assistance before. When you were booking this travel, would you work with them to do it? Answer. Sometimes if I was directed to by Epstein to book a ticket and I needed to speak with them. But usually it was whatever he wanted. Question. And who would that have been on his staff that you would have booked travel with or work with to book travel? Just Amex. Centurion. Question. Oh, understood. What was your understanding of the purpose of this travel? Answer. For the traveling assistants to help him with his travel. To be there, to do chores, to make sure that the staff, wherever he was going, had things. They would go grocery shopping, things of that nature. I think we may be miscommunicating, so I'll try to be more clear. When you book travel on behalf of Mr. Epstein for women affiliated with him, did you work with people on his staff to do that? No. Question. Okay, Question. But did you work with External people like Ms. Redacted? Yes. Okay. And this travel was typically for his staff, but also potentially other women and as well. Correct. Answer. Correct question. Okay. For those other women, not staff members who are traveling with them, but for those other women, what was your understanding of the typical purpose of that travel? Answer. I didn't ask him why he had people traveling. I don't know. Question Were you ever aware of the purpose being for Mr. Epstein to engage in sexual activity with these young women? Answer no. Question Were you ever aware of of the purpose being for people in his network to engage with sexual activity with these young women? Answer no Question I'd like to introduce as Minority Exhibit F this email exchange between you and Mr. Epstein. Excuse me. An email exchange between you and Ms. Redacted from September 5, 2017. The Bates number is EFTA 00458074. Although your name is redacted here, I'll represent to you based on an in camera review of an unredacted version of the document that the bottom email is from you. In this exchange, you raise with Ms. Redacted what you say is a, quote, gigantic issue. You flag that some flight confirmations were sent to people other than you and you tell Ms. Redacted that, quote, Jeffrey was livid about this. Specifically, you note that some flight confirmations were sent to Redacted. And and another person. Why was Mr. Epstein angry about flight confirmations being sent to Ms. Redacted and this other person? Answer I don't know. I know that he's an extremely private person and didn't like other people knowing what he was didn't want people to know about his schedule. Question. Is this something that you remember him being angry about in other instances, flight confirmations being sent to people other than you and? Answer. And other instances. I believe this was the time when something was happening on Amex Centurion's end and emails were going to everybody that was in their database and he did not want everyone that was in their database receiving flight confirmations. Question. Emails were going to everyone in Amex Centurion's database. Answer. The database. That would be for us, for Epstein. Question. Got it. And who would have been included in that database? Answer. It would be anyone who was authorized to book travel. I would believe so. Any of the traveling assistants probably. Question. And you too, right? Answer. And me, huh? Question. Anyone else? Answer. Epstein, I don't know who else it might have been. Question. You also write that, quote, I'm petrified that all these tickets we have coming up this week from Russia to Paris will somehow resurface and get emailed to someone in our list of emails who was flying from Russia to Paris? Answer. I don't recall. Question. Were you concerned that information about their flights would, quote, resurface? Answer. It wasn't me. That was concerned. I didn't want to hear the wrath and get in trouble from Mr. Epstein about inadvertently having confirmations be sent to people that were not on our list. I understand. You said he's a private person. Was there any other reason he might not want these flight confirmations to go on that list? Answer not that I know of. No. Question. And to clarify, you understand your reference here to a list of emails being that MX Centurion database that we just spoke about? Answer. Correct. Question so we know that Mr. Epstein was in Paris at this point and had dinner reservations, or, excuse me, dinner plans on September 5, 2017, which is the date of this email. We also know that multiple women were scheduled to arrive in Paris that week. Were these women traveling to Paris for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with Mr. Epstein? I don't know. Question Were you ever aware of women who were booking travel for being manipulated or coerced to travel? No. Question. Ms. Groff, so you previously testified that the names in the database would have been the traveling assistants and other members of Mr. Epstein's staff. Is that correct? Answer. That's what I believe. Question. And you also previously testified that those women's jobs was to travel with Mr. Epstein and run his errands and arrange a schedule while he was traveling. Is that correct? Answer yes. Question so why would it then have been a problem for those women to know about people who might have been traveling to meet him while he was traveling to Paris? Answer I don't know why he would think it's a problem. I think he was a control freak. And just like he didn't. It was like, when he was out, it felt out of control. It was out of his control. He wanted it to stop. Question okay, so we have some questions about the payments from Mr. Epstein that were discussed, I think, a little bit in the previous hour. So, as discussed, we have records of some large cash transfers from Southern Financial to you. So Southern Financial was one of Mr. Epstein's entities. It is that correct? Yes. Okay. And are you aware of a transfer from Southern Financial to you on February 1, 2016, of $100,000? Oh, that was a loan? Yes. Okay, so that one. There's another one of 100,000 on January 3, 2017. Correct. Question and I believe you said that there was one in 2018. What was the date of that one? Answer probably around the same date as the others. I don't know exactly. Question okay, so early 2018. Answer probably yes, at the beginning of the year. That would make sense. Question of 100,000? Answer correct. Question okay, and then there's a transfer of 110,000 from Southern Financial to you on December 19, 2018. Answer correct. Question okay, and so it's correct, based on your previous testimony, that these were loans that were made to you as part of your compensation once your compensation system changed to a salary plus loan? Correct. Question okay, were there any other such loans made to you by Mr. Epstein or his entities? No. Okay. Did you receive any gifts from Mr. Epstein or any of his entities between December 19, 2018 and and his death? Answer no. Question okay. Answer not that I recall. Question and of those so 410,000, we know that some were loans that were forgiven at the time of his death. What was the outstanding balance of the loans that was forgiven at the time of his death? Answer I guess the 410,000. Question okay, so you didn't pay back any of those loans at any point before his death or after? Answer correct. Mr. Bauchner, can I have a moment with her? Ms. Groff? I was writing interest loans, interest checks, whenever they were due. I don't know. Question so you paid the interest but not the principal? Answer yeah, exactly. I paid the interest from the start. Question okay. Did you ever help facilitate any transfers, money transfers to or from Mr. Epstein or any of his entities? Answer no. Question okay, Sarah Kellen told investigators that in December 2018, you emailed her to meet with Mr. Epstein and he later later gave her 250, 000. Were you aware of that payment at the time? Answer I was not. No. Question okay. Did you later become aware of that payment at any time before Mr. Epstein's death? Answer no. Question okay, and then we have some questions about your roles in Mr. Epstein's various trusts. So you were named as a beneficiary of the 2013 Butterfly Trust on a document dated December 31, 2013. Can you explain what the Butterfly Trust is? Answer no, I cannot. I didn't know about the Butterfly Trust. Answer you didn't know of its existence? Answer Correct. Question until when? Answer until after his death and all this came out and we were preparing to meet with you. Question okay, so at no point until your preparation for this interview did you know either of the existence of the Butterfly Trust or the fact that you were named as a beneficiary? That is correct. Okay, Were you. Did you know that you were named as a beneficiary of any other of Mr. Epstein's trusts? No. Question okay, they go off the record. Now they're back on. Question Is it your understanding at this point now that you are aware of the trust and your position as a beneficiary that you are eligible to receive money from that trust. Answer I don't believe I'm in the trust. After we were prepping for this, I believe I was taken out of that trust. Question do you know when that occurred? Answer I believe it occurred when he was in jail. He took me out of his trust. Question after his arrest in 2019. Answer correct. Question okay, and separately, you are named as a Trustee of the 2017 Caterpillar Trust on a document dated January 1, 2017. So were you aware at that time that you had been named as a trustee on the other trust? Answer after prepping for this testimony, I remember it now. Question but you were not, you were aware at that time? Answer I must have been aware at the time because my signature is on the paperwork. Question okay, and what were you or are your responsibilities as a trustee? I don't think I had any responsibilities. Question at any point. Correct. Okay. And do you stand to benefit financially from your role as a trustee? No. No. Question Is it your understanding that the Caterpillar Trust is still in existence? I don't know. I don't think so. I don't know. Okay, you don't know. I don't know. Question Got it. Thank you. All right, folks, we're going to wrap up right here. And in the next episode dealing with the topic, 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.