Lesley Groff Appears Before House Oversight, Testifies Voluntarily, Denies Knowledge of Epstein Crimes

On June 9, 2026 at 10:00 AM, Lesley Groff — Jeffrey Epstein’s executive assistant from February 2001 to July 2019 — appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for a closed-door transcribed interview. This was her first-ever sworn or transcribed appearance in 19 years of Epstein litigation.

What Happened

Groff appeared. She did not invoke the Fifth Amendment, did not seek a motion to quash, and did not litigate subpoena compliance. Her appearance was described in contemporaneous reporting as voluntary.

She testified. In her opening statement, Groff characterized Epstein as “a master manipulator and deceiver who separated his legitimate life from his secret life as an abuser and made sure that as his secretary, those two worlds did not collide.” She stated: “I believe that my testimony will dispel the false notions that because of my employment with Epstein I must have knowingly enabled or conspired with him to commit his evil acts.”

She denied knowledge. Groff told the committee she “never witnessed or knew of any sexual abuse,” and that she “never saw anything improper.” She acknowledged scheduling massages for Epstein almost daily, receiving therapist names from Epstein himself, and arranging appointments at his Manhattan residence. She claimed she never met any of the masseuses and none told her they were minors or being abused.

Named Participants

• Lesley Groff — witness
• Rep. James Comer (R-KY) — committee chairman; described Groff as possessing “very valuable” information
• Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) — ranking Democrat; expressed skepticism about her credibility after the testimony
• Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) — publicly stated he found her claim of never suspecting abuse “absolutely unbelievable — not remotely credible”
• Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) — questioned how she could arrange massages for a registered sex offender without suspicion; noted she “arranged young women for massages with a registered sex offender”

Committee Credibility Assessment

Multiple Democrats exiting the closed session publicly questioned the credibility of Groff’s testimony. Rep. Walkinshaw: “Leslie Groff maintained today that she never once even had a suspicion that perhaps he was abusing women and girls; I find it unbelievable — absolutely unbelievable, not remotely credible.” Rep. Lynch raised the specific incongruity of arranging massages for a registered sex offender with no suspicion.

Documents Status

Groff’s full transcript was publicly released June 23, 2026 by the House Oversight Committee, simultaneously with Bill Gates’s June 10, 2026 transcript. Primary source: https://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-committee-releases-gates-and-groff-transcripts/

The committee’s investigation reviewed: federal government handling of Epstein investigations; circumstances of Epstein’s 2019 death; operation of sex-trafficking networks; Epstein and Maxwell’s influence-seeking; and ethics violations by elected officials.

Transcript Content — Key Sworn Exchanges (Released 2026-06-23)

Trump-Epstein Calls

The released transcript reveals Groff arranged quarterly phone calls between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump before Trump became president. She arranged them “about once a quarter.” When asked about the tenor of the conversations, she said she did not know their content. Rep. Lynch confirmed this finding, noting the calls pre-dated Trump’s presidency. (CNN, 2026-06-23; Mediaite, 2026-06-23)

Massage Scheduling — Minor Victim Account

A committee attorney questioned Groff about a witness who — as a minor at the time — told the FBI that Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and that she had explicitly told Groff she was not 18 years old and needed money for an abortion.

Committee attorney exchange:

• Committee attorney: “Do you think that a 14-year-old sounds the same as a person in their 20s or 30s or 40s?”
• Groff: “It’s possible. I don’t know. I was not evaluating voices. Nobody ever sounded like they were underage.”

Groff disputed the minor victim’s account: “I’m not saying that what she’s thinking — that she told someone — but she did not tell me… I think she is mistaken. I know she is mistaken.”

Rep. Krishnamoorthi challenged her directly: “You want us to believe that after 18 years working in the employ of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein that not on one occasion did you believe that any of your contacts in setting up these appointments with Jeffrey Epstein were either a minor or an underage person, correct?”

Characterization of 2007 Law Enforcement Action

Groff said Epstein told her his 2007 Florida prosecution was a blackmail attempt: “It was a shakedown, he claimed, for money” — citing his claim the girl had lied about her age. Groff relayed Epstein’s own framing without independently assessing it.

Repeat Non-Recall Pattern

Rep. Yassamin Ansari characterized Groff’s testimony as containing repeated instances of “I don’t recall, I don’t know.”

The October 2016 Thiel-Churkin-Epstein Lunch — GAP-IN-QUESTIONING CONFIRMED

Disposition: GAP-IN-QUESTIONING (three-way ambiguity resolved 2026-06-23 by full transcript scan).

Full scan of the 229-page public transcript (pages 1-229, all pages read 2026-06-23) finds zero references to Peter Thiel, Vitaly Churkin, October 7 2016, October 2016, or the Thiel-Russia convergence. The committee never asked about the October 7, 2016 lunch at any point in the public record.

Evidence basis:

• Calendar-review section (Majority Exhibit 7, pp.159-165): Committee staff walked Groff through Epstein associates by name — Pritzker, Fekkai, Leon Black, Summers, Staley, Gates, Rothschild, Dershowitz, Ruemmler, RFK Jr., Bannon, Lutnick, Botstein, Chomsky, Wolff, Ferguson, Mandelson, Sulayem, Musk — Thiel absent from the entire list.
• Intelligence-agency questioning (p.218): Committee asked whether Epstein or Maxwell worked for any intelligence service of any nation, including the United States — no Churkin or Russia-2016 angle pursued.
• Open-ended closing question (p.228): Committee attorney Brignac: “Is there anything we’ve not asked you about today that you would like to offer into the record?” Groff: “I don’t believe so, no.” Neither side raised the Thiel-Churkin event.
• No redaction markers visible in public transcript around any calendar or Russia-related section.

Residual ambiguity: A fully-redacted closed-session exchange on Thiel/Churkin cannot be ruled out by transcript scan alone. The public transcript contains no redaction indicators, but the committee could have asked about this subject in a portion not released. This is the narrower remaining gap; the three-way ambiguity (gap-in-questioning / gap-in-reporting / redaction in public text) is resolved as gap-in-questioning for the public record.

Groff remains the sole living witness with documented email-level involvement (EFTA00317537, EFTA00317522, EFTA02040252, EFTA02329682) in the only confirmed in-person convergence of Peter Thiel and Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin during the 2016 election cycle — and the public record of this proceeding contains no sworn questioning on that event.

Background

Groff’s name appears ~150,000-160,000 times in the DOJ EFTA document corpus — second only to Epstein himself. She was named among potential co-conspirators in the 2008 Acosta non-prosecution agreement and in the February 2026 DOJ EFTA release (EFTA00040611 p.13). She declined to appear before a grand jury in 2019 (via Fifth Amendment invocation), but cooperated with SDNY investigators in 2021. SDNY closed without charging her. She received NPA immunity under the 2008 plea deal.

Structural Significance

This is the most significant witness event in the Epstein congressional investigation since Maxwell’s 2021 conviction — the first sworn-or-transcribed appearance by the administrative linchpin of Epstein’s operation. The transcript, when released, will be the first record of Groff under questioning about specific scheduling activities, including potentially the October 2016 coordination with Thiel and Churkin’s offices.

Cross-references:

• groff-lesley (actor profile)
• groff-witness-deposition-transcripts-october-2016 (prior testimony sweep)
• 2016-10-07–scheduled-epstein-thiel-churkin-meeting-access-hollywood-day-two-of-three-now-dead (the lunch itself)
• efta-groff-october-2016-churkin-thiel-correspondence-full-thread (documentary basis)