Fired CNN producer John Griffin bribed a witness, deleted files and had others vouch for his character before he was arrested for allegedly abusing a 9-year-old girl at his Ludlow ski house and trying to lure other young girls for “sexual training,” according to newly filed court documents.
The filing by the prosecution paints a picture of Griffin as determined to upend the investigation that spanned more than a year before his arrest on Dec. 10 in Connecticut, where he resides.
“Griffin has tried to deceive, delete and spend his way out of being held accountable,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher wrote in a motion filed Monday, seeking to continue holding Griffin in custody while the case against him is pending.
“He is a wealthy man who will be desperate to avoid facing justice,” Drescher wrote of Griffin, who had worked at CNN for about eight years as a producer for Chris Cuomo. He was fired soon after his arrest.
If convicted, Griffin faces 10 years to life in prison.
The filing comes ahead of Griffin’s first appearance in federal court in Burlington, scheduled for Wednesday morning. Griffin, 44, faces arraignment on three counts of “using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.”
The prosecution is expected to present its case for keeping Griffin in jail to federal Judge William K. Sessions III. Drescher’s 17-page filing details why he believes Griffin continues to represent a danger to others and a flight risk.
“He faces not only a significant loss of liberty, but also extraordinary reputational damage,” the prosecutor wrote of Griffin. “He has dishonestly tried to talk his way out of being held accountable. He has tried to buy his way out of trouble.”
Drescher, through a spokesperson, declined comment Tuesday on his filing.
Attorney David Kirby, a former U.S. attorney for Vermont who is representing Griffin, also declined comment when reached on Tuesday.
The indictment returned against Griffin earlier this month alleged that he paid more than $3,000 to a Nevada mother he’d been communicating with on sexual social messaging apps to fly to Vermont with her 9-year-old daughter in July 2020. Griffin told the woman he wanted to train her and the girl on learn how to be submissive to men, and in Vermont he forced the girl into unlawful sex acts, according to prosecutors.
He also unsuccessfully tried to coerce parents online at least two other times to bring their children to Ludlow for “sexual training,” the indictment against Griffin stated.
The prosecution’s filing on Monday reveals more details of Griffin’s alleged online luring activities. For example, Drescher wrote, Griffin offered $30,000 in February 2020 to a parent for a “mother daughter weekend or week with me.”
Griffin, according to the motion, was clear about his intent, writing online, “will there be SEXUALITY involved??? Of course, that’s the point.”
A month later, Drescher wrote, Griffin offered a woman $1,200 for sex, adding, “There is a better deal to (be) had though … 5k if the kids are in the room.”
Griffin also sent $4,000 to a relative of the 9-year-old girl from Nevada whose mother took her to Griffin’s Ludlow residence. The payment was made after that relative began to ask questions about what took place in Vermont, according to court records.
“This apparent payoff of a potential witness is not only further evidence of wrongdoing, it is an independent reason for Griffin’s detention,” Drescher wrote in the filing. “Indeed, making payments to a potential witness in an apparent effort to buy their silence itself justifies Griffin’s pretrial detention.”
The filing also stated that Griffin, after his arrest by the FBI, said without prompting, “I just want to let you guys know that I’m ashamed you even know my name at all.”
The motion details that Griffin allegedly tried to pay hush money related to other cases in the past, including after his October 2020 arrest in Plymouth on a drunken driving charge following a crash. According to the motion, Griffin offered the other driver “cash and a check to not call the police.” Griffin later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of grossly negligent driving and paid a $3,000 fine.
Drescher wrote that Griffin has access to large sums of money, increasing the risk he could flee. According to the prosecutor, Griffin purchased the Ludlow ski house in 2020 for about $1.8 million without a mortgage.
The prosecutor also wrote that Griffin “boasted” to FBI agents investigating him in September 2020 that “I command an estate worth $35 million to $40 million.”
As the FBI investigated Griffin for sex crimes with children, he got four friends, his wife and his father to write letters vouching for his good character, according to the prosecution filing. However, as several of those letter-writers learned details of the probe, three of the friends and his wife asked to withdraw their letters of support, the document shows.
“One friend explained that he was ‘blatantly lied to’ about the nature of the investigation when he agreed to write on Griffin’s behalf,” Drescher wrote. “That Griffin employed false pretenses to obtain a letter of support undermines any argument that Griffin’s character is sound.”
