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Lesley Groff attends a gala on February 23, 2010 in New York City. Groff was listed as a potential co-conspirator of her boss Jeffrey Epstein in a newly unredacted DOJ file.<\/p>\n
MAX RAPP\/Patrick McMullan Via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Lesley Groff, in an undated file photo.<\/p>\n
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Lesley\u00a0Groff,\u00a0Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive assistant<\/a>, scheduled “massages” and coordinated dozens of flights around the world for victims of the disgraced convicted sex trafficker<\/a>, recently released Department of Justice documents show.<\/p>\n But it remains unknown whether the Connecticut resident knew about Epstein’s sexual assaults, which one victim said once happened just on the other side of a closed door from where Groff was working.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Victims\u00a0interviewed by federal investigators<\/a> allege that\u00a0Groff scheduled \u201cmassages\u201d in New York City where Epstein assaulted women<\/a>, according to internal FBI summaries of those victim interviews.<\/p>\n This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Jeffrey Epstein. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)<\/p>\n AP<\/p>\n In some cases, Groff allegedly paid the victims or covered their schooling expenses, according to a December 2019 Department of Justice memo<\/a> summarizing nearly 50 interviews federal agents conducted while investigating potential co-conspirators of Epstein’s, including testimony from 38 victims, nine of whom referenced Groff.<\/p>\n Groff, a New Canaan resident<\/a>, also coordinated dozens of flights that brought potential victims to his properties around the world, according to\u00a0DOJ documents<\/a>, which include flight receipts and her emails about those bookings.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Make CT Insider a preferred source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n In a July 2021 sit-down\u202fwith prosecutors<\/a>,\u202fGroff admitted to booking massages for\u202fEpstein, an internal FBI report on the meeting shows.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n During a separate interview in February 2020<\/a>, notes show that Groff’s lawyer, Michael Bachner, told investigators his client did not know the massages were sexual, was unaware the girls she was booking were underage, and thought that when the girls mentioned “class or school,” they were talking about college.<\/p>\n CT Insider reviewed thousands of pages of DOJ documents, including emails, flight confirmations, victim interviews and photographs for this story.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Groff, who managed Epstein\u2019s schedule, meetings and travel for nearly two decades, has consistently denied any knowledge of his sprawling sex trafficking operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a lawsuit filed in 2021, \u201cJane Doe\u201d claimed that Groff facilitated Epstein\u2019s trafficking of her by purchasing plane tickets, sending money and making appointments. Doe later dismissed the lawsuit before Groff was required to file a response to the claims.\u202fTwo other victims filed civil suits against Groff, but those litigations were also dismissed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Groff was\u00a0named as a potential “co-conspirator” of Epstein’s<\/a> in several internal DOJ documents \u2014 which range from an FBI list<\/a> of potential Epstein collaborators to July 2019 emails<\/a> between FBI agents and prosecutors \u2014 and appeared in more than 150,000 files<\/a> released since last December.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But she\u00a0was never charged with a crime, and the lawsuits filed against her have all been dismissed.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The fact that the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office did not prosecute Lesley, after she voluntarily spoke with them, answering every question posed of her, demonstrates clearly that she had no criminal involvement with Epstein,” Bachner\u00a0said. “Lesley is simply disgusted by Epstein\u2019s conduct and is heartbroken by what his victims endured.”<\/p>\n The internal DOJ files indicate that prosecutors and victims believed that Groff, who worked for Epstein from 2001 until his arrest and\u00a0coordinated virtually all of his travel<\/a>, had helped move his victims to his properties around the globe.<\/p>\n Groff, who Epstein once described<\/a> as an “extension of my brain,” worked for nearly two decades out of his\u00a0Madison Avenue office\u00a0<\/a>in New York City. She was named as a “potential co-conspirator,” and shielded from prosecution as part of Epstein’s controversial 2008 non-prosecution agreement<\/a> in Florida.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But she has flown under the radar relative to other Epstein associates, including convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and alleged recruiter Jean-Luc Brunel.\u00a0<\/p>\n On March 3, a House committee investigating\u202fEpstein called on Groff to testify<\/a> before them in June. A spokesperson for the committee said last month that Groff was \u201cconfirmed\u201d for a transcribed interview on June 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n “She was Epstein’s primary secretary who handled the travel logistics for Epstein, his employees, and the victims who travelled,” a DOJ lawyer, whose name was redacted, wrote in an internal October 2020 email chain<\/a> in which prosecutors debated how to handle the sheer volume of files mentioning Groff.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “In addition to scheduling massage appointments, Groff would also book flights for girls who travelled to meet Epstein at his various residences,” investigators wrote in the Decmber 2019 memo<\/a>, drawing on testimony from at least five separate victim interviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n Groff scheduled victims ‘massages’ in NYC<\/p>\n Several partially redacted DOJ documents \u2014 collected as part of the investigation that led to Epstein’s July 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges\u00a0 \u2014 shed more light on why prosecutors initially identified Groff, along with Maxwell, Brunel and others, as a potential “co-conspirator” of Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n That includes the December 2019 “potential co-conspirator” memo, sent by redacted assistant U.S. attorneys to then-lead prosecutor Geoffrey Berman, as well as three interviews<\/a> that the FBI conducted with victims<\/a> as they were closing in on Epstein in the spring and summer of 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend a benefit concert on March 15, 2005 in New York City.<\/p>\n Patrick McMullan\/Joe Schildhorn\/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n At least a half-dozen victims said they contacted Groff to schedule “massages,” in which Epstein would solicit or coerce women and girls into sex, and three said they were paid for the massages by Groff, the DOJ memo and victim interviews show. One woman, described as both a victim and a recruiter, told prosecutors that it was Groff’s responsibility to schedule massages in New York City, according to the documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an April 2019 FBI interview, a victim who said Epstein began assaulting her at 14 and that she later recruited other girls for him told investigators she would call Groff to schedule times for a \u201cmassage.\u201d<\/p>\n “(Redacted) and LESLIE (Groff) never discussed about what was really going on with the massages but remembered LESLIE asking her, ‘Was this her first time,'” the interview said<\/a>, referring to a phone call between Groff and the victim.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A document included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, that illustrates several people who handled Epstein’s financial affairs or who were close to him<\/p>\n Jon Elswick\/AP<\/p>\n Another victim, who the DOJ memo says was abused by Epstein as an adult, remembered that Groff was steps away from Epstein’s office on one occasion when she was assaulted.\u00a0<\/p>\n “She recalls that Groff was right outside the closed door to Epstein’s office on one occasion when Epstein forced (redacted) to perform oral sex on him, but she does not know whether Groff knew what was happening inside the office,” the memo read<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a DOJ memo of a November 2020 victim interview<\/a>, a third victim, who allegedly “massaged”\u00a0Epstein and recruited other girls for him, described Groff as a familiar presence in his office who helped screen girls for Epstein.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “(Redacted) would mention different girls’ names to LESLEY,” the memo said<\/a>. “(Redacted) felt it was pretty obvious LESLEY knew what was going on.”<\/p>\n That victim also told investigators that on one occasion she, \u201ccalled the office to talk to (Groff),\u00a0saying she needed to speak to Epstein as soon as possible because she needed money to get an\u00a0abortion,\u201d\u00a0the memo\u00a0stated. \u201c(Groff)\u00a0was able to get Epstein on the phone right away and Epstein gave (redacted) $1000 in an envelope.”<\/p>\n \u00a0Jeffrey Epstein’s residence at 9 East 71st Street in the Manhattan borough of New York on July 18, 2019 in New York City.<\/p>\n Scott Heins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n In her 2021 interview with prosecutors,\u00a0Groff described massages as a routine part of Epstein’s day, according to an interview summary prepared by prosecutors. She said that when she first started working for Epstein, Maxwell told her that Epstein needed a massage every day. Groff also said scheduling massages was roughly 1% of her job. \u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “It was presented like it was totally normal,” the notes describe Groff saying<\/a>. “To (Groff), making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make for (Epstein).”<\/p>\n In the victim interviews, several expressed uncertainty about how much Groff was aware of what the “massages” entailed.<\/p>\n According to notes from the interview\u202fBachner gave to investigators in February 2020, Groff rarely interacted with the victims in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unlike Maxwell, Groff did not travel with Epstein outside of New York City, and only visited her boss’s homes in Paris and the U.S. Virgin Islands on one occasion each, while on vacation with her husband. Epstein was not on the island or at his home in Paris when\u00a0Groff and her husband stayed there.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While\u00a0Groff herself did not travel with her boss, DOJ records include dozens of emails and plane ticket booking confirmations\u00a0showing that Groff arranged for women from Eastern European countries \u2014 whose names are redacted in the files \u2014 to be flown to Epstein’s residences in Paris, New York City, Palm Beach and the U.S. Virgin Islands to meet him.<\/p>\n Over nearly a decade, those documents show,\u00a0Groff coordinated several dozen flights from cities in Russia, Ukraine,\u00a0Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania to Epstein\u2019s properties.<\/p>\n FILE – In this Aug.13, 2019 file photo, a man walks his dog next to an apartment building owned by Jeffrey Epstein in Paris.<\/p>\n Francois Mori\/AP<\/p>\n Because the names are redacted, it is difficult to determine how many individuals were booked on those flights, but arranging their travel was a\u00a0consistent\u202fpart of Groff’s work<\/a> as Epstein’s personal secretary between 2012 and 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Using victims to recruit more victims was a hallmark of Epstein\u2019s trafficking ring<\/a>. After his 2008 conviction for soliciting a child prostitute in Florida, he increasingly recruited young women from Eastern Europe<\/a>, who were often more dependent on him for finances, visas and jobs.<\/p>\n After Epstein’s arrest, agents questioned Groff but did not prosecute<\/p>\n In the days surrounding Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors zeroed in on Groff as a member of Epstein’s inner circle.<\/p>\n Prosecutors sent a planning email<\/a> on the eve of Epstein’s arrest, which identified Groff, along with several redacted names, as someone “we believe that each booked ‘massages’ for him with underage girls.” And in the days following the\u00a0arrest, Groff was served a grand jury subpoena<\/a> as an alleged “co-conspirator.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In February\u00a02020, Bachner met with agents on behalf of Groff, providing “preliminary” testimony<\/a> to absolve his client from any involvement in the trafficking ring.<\/p>\n He said\u00a0Groff had little to no interaction with the women she booked massages for, and that she did not know there was sexual contact during the massages. In her eyes, Epstein was “wacky, bizarre” but not sexual, Bachner told the authorities.<\/p>\n \u00a0US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City.<\/p>\n Stephanie Keith\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Then 15 months later, it was\u00a0Groff’s turn to speak with federal agents<\/a>, where she described booking massages and maintaining\u00a0Epstein’s busy social and professional calendar.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Groff characterized the relationship between\u00a0Epstein and Maxwell as volatile, and her boss as demanding, saying he sometimes sent her home in tears. But still, she seemed to enjoy the work.\u00a0<\/p>\n “(Groff) thought the whole office seemed happy, like the employees were happy, and it was a nice place to work,” prosecutors wrote.<\/p>\n The nine-page summary of the interview does not include questions from agents about\u00a0Groff booking flights for alleged victims, nor does it discuss her thoughts on\u00a0Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for soliciting a child prostitute.\u00a0<\/p>\n Groff continued working for Epstein for more than a decade after that conviction, until July 2019, the month of his arrest.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n When asked why Groff stayed,\u00a0Bachner told investigators that Epstein was “abusive but also charming, and the work was (very) interesting.”<\/p>\n After Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors identified Groff as a possible co-conspirator in a December 2019 memo. A follow-up DOJ document in April of 2020<\/a> described Groff as “the primary\u202fscheduler” for massages at Epstein’s New York City residence.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n But unlike Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of sex trafficking in 2021, and Brunel, who died by suicide in a French prison after being arrested and charged with raping a minor, Groff was never arrested and maintains her innocence<\/a> to this day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lesley Groff attends a gala on February 23, 2010 in New York City. 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