Longtime Epstein assistant paints late sex offender as master manipulator and denies knowing about his crimes | CNN Politics

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistants told members of the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday that she did not know about the late convicted sex offender’s crimes, describing him as a master manipulator who had every reason to keep them a secret from her, according to two sources familiar with the testimony. As a way to try to demonstrate her ignorance about Epstein’s wrongdoing, Lesley Groff, Epstein’s former executive assistant, said she believed the massage appointments she made for Epstein with young women and girls were with massage therapists, the sources said. “I want to say without any doubt that I have come to believe the man who employed me from February of 2001 through July of 2019 was a monster. For 18 years, I worked for Dr. Jekyll but was never permitted to see the true Mr. Hyde,” Groff said in her opening statement, later obtained by CNN. “Mr. Epstein was, in hindsight, 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.” Groff is one of the most notable members of the late financier’s inner orbit to speak to Congress as