BREAKING: Trump’s Epstein problem returns with blockbuster testimony

Our top story is the Epstein scandal roaring back on Capitol Hill, the very outcome President Trump has tried and failed to prevent.Congress drawing new testimony from a key witness, Epstein's assistant of 18 years.Lawmakers now following leads that the Trump DOJ and its predecessors apparently abandoned, or worse, that Trump officials recently hid.So it's vital to recall how we got here, even if Donald Trump wishes this was not the top story tonight.First, last year, then Attorney General Bondi claimed in writing that there was actually no evidence for any other investigations against third parties who had not already been charged in this Epstein probe.And remember, she also said there should be no further disclosure of any Epstein files.

That was her memo.That was the Trump -Bondi plan to bury and hide the Epstein files.It failed, as you know.Indeed, it was the Epstein files which later exposed how FBI investigators previously tracked several suspected co -conspirators, revealed in this long secret document that actually only came out when we started getting the Epstein files.We reported on it that night and in other reports.And I'll get into that.

But what you're looking at is important because this was the then secret DOJ effort to diagram Epstein's then uncharged inner circle.And if you notice the lower left where we've added a square, this is government evidence, but we've added that square for your understanding of what's important today.That diagram includes today's witness, Leslie Groff.Now, we've reported on the timeline, the denials, the secrecy, the leaks until these later files showed those abandoned leads.This was our case timeline.You remember how it all came back to life.

And Groff matters more.perhaps than some of Epstein's lawyers and accountants.You see the suspect list that was released there on the right.That's the one I'm talking about.She had the widest visibility on his plans and communications with all kinds of people, including some of the people you see on your screen who've only gotten in trouble or faced any kind of accountability since these files came out.The ones that I just reminded you Bondi tried to hide and said in writing shouldn't be released.

So before I tell you what she said today, and it's stuff that Donald Trump wishes wasn't in the news, remember that she was on the emails and in the arranged meetings for the powerful, for the staff, to the women.I need to go back a little bit.We're going back.Hold on, I want to slow down and tell you guys this.She was at the center.She was on site.

So she was an eyewitness.You can see how many times she's in the files.And an email witness, because she was on so many emails, her name appears more than anyone else.And she kept working for Epstein through his 2019 arrest, arranging the meetings with so many figures.So that's why it matters that now, after all these years, she showed up, you can see today, this is what happened today, showed up to testify to Congress.And in a time of great skepticism about our government, and it took people and pressure to get here, but under public pressure, I want you to understand that the Democrats on the committee who've pushed hard for this and 26 Republicans came around, perhaps under pressure, but still came around to demanding this on a bipartisan basis.

I'm not telling you we're all good and everything works.We're far from that.But I am telling you that people who said two years ago, well, how would you make the Congress do anything?And how could you get the Republicans on board?It would make Trump look bad.Well, here we are today, a bipartisan effort to get her and these other witnesses to speak to Congress, which, again, is supposed to represent you.

the pursuit of the truth.So Groff's lawyer now says she was disgusted by Epstein conduct.She testified today that he was a monster, a master manipulator and a deceiver, separating his legitimate life from a secret life as an abuser.She recounts that she first took the job for about $50 ,000 a year and that she tackled everything from scheduling to mundane tasks.She describes having to ensure today that he had his reading glasses at every single table at his home, so he never had to look for it.She told the committee that sometimes very late in the day, she'd have to source a dozen chocolate croissants made in New York to be delivered to Palm Beach by nine the next morning.

Amid those kind of details, she also asserts that she learned Epstein was actually a kind of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character.So her version of events, now that you see how central she was, and I've reminded you how Trump and Bondi fought for this ever to come out, her version of events is still that Epstein somehow hid his entire enterprise from her.even as she carried out this daily schedule and met his demands.Before I go more deeply into what she says, which is a kind of a defense of what she knew at the time, I want to give you a testimonial fact check.I'm reporting on her testimony.That's what she says.

Before we go any further, I want you to know what other survivors say.They disagree with her account that she couldn't see any of this.They've previously stated that this key witness, Groff, arranged appointments with one victim when she was a minor and that it was, quote, pretty obvious Leslie knew what was going on, an account given to the FBI in 2021.Groff told the FBI that she viewed booking Epstein's massages as a kind of standard appointment.But now that the public can see all the Epstein files, which, again, we never had before, which the FBI did have, the claim that these were just typical massages makes basically no sense.sense.

For example, this witness was arranging payments that were much, much higher than the most expensive massage services available.And this is what investigators do.You don't always have all the evidence to show, oh, someone admitted a crime.But here was an arrangement for a $1 ,000 payment in 2017, which is about $1 ,300 today, just accounting for inflation.Even top Five -star spas don't charge $1 ,300 for the best sort of most celebrated masseuse they have in the most expensive resorts.She also cited payments to a girl for time spent on the island.

Her other past emails, which we only got, of course, recently, show her awareness that one girl could not come because she was at school till 10 PM.Others show a type of paid activity that goes beyond, say, an hour massage.She arranged at Epstein's request for a paid visit at the house that would start around 3, but staying into the evening.So that's just some of what we know.Today, speaking to the committee, she played down knowing that kind of thing.Lawmakers say that she was just distancing herself from what Epstein did.

She saw no misconduct, she claims.One Democrat saying they want to get Groff on the record so that when we find out later she was lying, quote, we can arrest her.Lawmakers expressing their doubts about her claims, sort of naivete.

It is highly inconsistent what she's maintaining that she really didn't know Jeffrey Epstein.She arranged young women for massages with a registered sex offender.And I just question whether she can rightfully and truthfully maintain that she saw nothing improper.

That's one lawmaker's informed skepticism.Groff's claims of ignorance, what, by the way, under law can sometimes be deemed willful blindness, are also under pressure from the public accounts of Epstein's earlier misconduct and his famed Florida conviction.Now, I want you to know, like I said, we're going to tell you what happened today.This is new.This is brand new.As of today, we didn't know this a few hours ago.

Groff did try to address the Epstein history.She told lawmakers that after his arrest in 08, Epstein lied to me and insisted he'd been blackmailed.He angrily said the allegations against him were false, that he had no idea that the woman he had contact with was a minor.In my mind, that was the reason he was treated so leniently by law enforcement for such a serious crime.Now, from the FBI to Congress, informed investigators have to weigh that kind of denial with how much else Groff would be in a position to witness or see, and how much she helped arrange.as documented in the emails and Epstein files, which under no other criminal case that we've covered in history, would you get all the emails.

So the old defense looks a little different when the public now has access to the things that the FBI and DOJ had for years and sometimes did very little with.Lawmakers also asking today if she arranged any contact between Epstein and Trump.

Did she talk about scheduling meetings between Mr. Epstein and President Trump?

Basically, arranging phone calls, I believe, was the most of it.Just contact between, you know, just arranging phone calls between President Trump and Mr. Epstein, yes.

Did she give a timeline on when they were talking?

I believe she referred to a time before Mr. Trump was president.

So that's going back to a period where we know they were having contact and sometimes socializing.She maintains she had no knowledge of any criminal activity, and she has never been charged.Survivors, though, and some legal experts say that may be the problem.A question how the FBI identified and mapped these suspected co -conspirators, some of them, as you see, redacted, and yet did not apparently legally pursue any except Maxwell, who's now getting those unusually favorable requests met as she gets special treatment from the Trump DOJ.We are here learning new things.And as some lawmakers said, if the denials do not hold up over time under the weight of evidence and investigation, getting them before Congress, it's a crime to lie to Congress, is itself useful.

There are many different elements to the long -running Epstein scandal.And while some people rush to say, well, this means they can assume the worst about anyone they don't like for political or other reasons, and that has certainly contributed to some of the heat, that's not actually what matters.What does matter, and what Donald Trump's DOJ is a part of, is how long the government has hid and misled about the very facts we now have continuing to come out.And perhaps it's a political irony for Donald Trump that by fighting this so hard, he has dragged dependency of this discussion and news cycle closer and closer to the next election in the midterms.Just as he dragged one of the Epstein rebels, Tom Massey, through the most expensive primary in American history just to try to get rid of him, which raises the question, why are you so committed to fighting every lawmaker and every survivor and every witness who has something to say about this sordid history?