Epstein Files Update: Personal Assistant Gives Congress ‘A Lot of Names'

A former assistant for Jeffrey Epstein arranged phone calls between the convicted sex offender and President Donald Trump before he took office, lawmakers told reporters Tuesday.

Representative Robert Garcia, ranking member and lead Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Lesley Groff, who worked for Epstein for roughly two decades started in 2001, provided valuable testimony during Tuesday’s closed-door session on Capitol Hill.

“Today we had Ms. Groff, who is actually still testifying right now to the committee,” Garcia said. “She’s giving us, in fact, a lot of names of staff, employees and folks who worked in the Epstein orbit. She worked for Epstein for 18 years, so she's being asked, I think, some very tough questions - rightly so - about what she knew, who she scheduled appointments with. She scheduled massages, we know that, and so that’s being asked of her right now.”

“It is highly inconsistent what she's maintaining, that she really didn't know Jeffrey Epstein even though she worked for him for 18 years,” Lynch told reporters.

Groff said she also arranged “multiple phone calls” between Trump and Epstein prior to Trump’s election as president in November 2016, but she didn’t specify when, according to Lynch.

Groff also said she was unaware of any employees from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort ever visiting Epstein’s residence, a source told CNN.

Representative Melanie Stansbury, another Democrat on the committee, said Groff told the panel she “arranged calls” for Trump and Epstein to connect, but said the instances were infrequent. Trump, 79, has previously denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claims the pair severed ties in the early 2000s.

“Just as President Trump has said, he's been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Politico in a statement. “And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein's Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein's victims than anyone before him.”

Groff, who has not faced criminal charges in connection with Epstein, has been cited in a class-action lawsuit against the co-executors of Epstein’s estate as the disgraced financier’s “secretary who made travel arrangements for the girls” and scheduled massage sessions. She was also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement in 2008, Politico reported.

Multiple victims of Epstein have told FBI investigators that Groff acted as the point person to reach Epstein and schedule massages that allowed rampant sexual abuse to occur. In 2001, she told an FBI agent that booking massages for Epstein was “just another appointment she had to make,” according to CNN.

Attorneys for Groff announced in 2021 that she wouldn’t be charged criminally for her actions while insisting she had “never witnessed anything improper or illegal” during her tenure with Epstein. Some of her other duties included “taking his messages and setting up high-level meetings with CEOs, business executives, scientists, politicians, celebrities, charitable organizations and universities,” her attorney previously told CNN in a statement.

A second legislative panel, the New Mexico Survivor’s Truth Commission, is also working to establish a public record of alleged abuse at Epstein’s former Zorro Ranch, a 7,500-acre estate outside Santa Fe that he purchased in 1993. Fourteen public and private institutions will be subpoenaed as part of the sprawling investigation, including financial institutions, federal agencies, state offices, law enforcement bodies and a prestigious scientific research center.

“All subpoenas have been approved and copies will be posted to our website as they are filed so the public can follow our progress,” Democratic state Representative Andrea Romero, who chairs the commission, told Newsweek in a statement last week. “Federal subpoenas to the FBI, Department of Justice, and Federal Aviation Administration may require additional time to file due to procedural requirements unique to federal agencies, but those subpoenas are approved and will move forward.”

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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 5:44 PM.