BURLINGTON — John Griffin made his first appearance in a Vermont courtroom Wednesday since his arrest earlier this month on child sex abuse charges and subsequent firing from his job as a veteran CNN producer.
Griffin 44, of Stamford, Connecticut, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Burlington to three charges of “using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.”
He also said to Judge William K. Sessions III that he planned to challenge a move by federal prosecutors to seize several assets from him, including his Tesla and Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
Prosecutors also are seeking forfeiture of the Ludlow ski house Griffin purchased almost two years ago for $1.8 million. That’s where authorities allege he lured a mother from Nevada and her 9-year-old child in July 2020, paying more than $3,000 for their travel to Ludlow where he forced the girl into unlawful sexual acts.
He also allegedly unsuccessfully tried to lure other parents online to travel to Vermont with their daughters where he said he would teach the children to be submissive to men and be forced to take part in “sexual training.”
Griffin entered the court on Wednesday in handcuffs accompanied by two agents with the U.S. Marshals Service. He wore an orange prison sweatshirt with matching sweatpants and a blue face mask.
Sessions, during the hearing, granted a request from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher, the prosecutor in the case, to hold Griffin in custody while the charges against him remain pending.
Drescher earlier this week filed a 17-page motion in support of continuing to detain Griffin. The prosecutor wrote in that filing that Griffin was a risk to flee if released, and had the resources to do so, having boasted to authorities investigating him prior to his arrest that he was in “command” of an estate worth up to $40 million.
Drescher also alleged in the filing Griffin had deleted electronic files to undercut a federal criminal probe he knew was underway and paid $4,000 to bribe a witness not to provide evidence against him.
Attorney David Kirby, representing Griffin, did not oppose the request to detain his client, saying he needed more time to review the “substantial” number of documents and other evidence recently turned over to him by the prosecution.
During the hearing, Griffin agreed to waive his speedy trial rights, in a case referred to by the judge and his attorney as extremely complex.
Other than about a half-dozen members of the media, court staff and attorneys, no one else attended the hearing.
Griffin has been in custody since his arrest on Dec. 10 by the FBI in Connecticut.
Newly sworn-in U.S. Attorney for Vermont Nikolas Kerest, who took office earlier this month, attended the hearing, seated in the front row of the gallery behind Drescher.
Kerest did not respond to reporters’ questions at the courthouse.
Kirby told reporters he would have no comment.
