Longtime CNN producer John Griffin attempted to pay off witnesses, offered a woman $30,000 for a “mother daughter weekend with me,” and told authorities that he was “ashamed” when he was arrested for allegedly abusing a 9-year-old girl and enticing other minors, U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont Nikolas Kerest wrote in a motion for detention ahead of Griffin’s arraignment on Wednesday.
The prosecutor laid out the “substantial” evidence against Griffin in the motion, which asks the judge to hold Griffin in jail without bail while his case is pending.
“Griffin has tried to deceive, delete, and spend his way out of being held accountable,” the prosecutor wrote. “He is a wealthy man who will be desperate to avoid facing justice.”
Griffin’s attorney, David Kirby, declined to comment on the court filing.
Last year, Griffin sought out women who identified as sexually submissive and tried to persuade them to allow him to “train” their minor daughters.
He told one parent that he “had trained girls as young as seven years of age,” according to the filing.
One woman, who was the mother of a 9-year-old girl, flew from Nevada to Boston to stay at Griffin’s Vermont ski house in July 2020, according to authorities.
While the woman and her minor daughter were at the home, Griffin viewed “web-pages featuring pornographic videos about sex with mothers and daughters.”
“The evidence against Griffin also includes a video captured by a drone operated by Griffin as it returned to Griffin’s Ludlow ski house shortly after 5am on July 20, 2020, showing the completely naked nine-year-old girl, standing immediately next to Griffin in his underwear,” the motion reads.
After the mother and daughter returned to Nevada, one of their relatives exchanged messages with Griffin in which he said he didn’t do anything wrong.
“U lmk if ur feeling helpful within the hour or so,” the relative said to Griffin, who then sent the relative $4,000, according to the motion.
“This apparent pay-off of a potential witness is not only further evidence of wrong-doing, it is an independent reason for Griffin’s detention,” the prosecutor writes.
Separately, after Griffin got into a car accident while allegedly driving drunk in October 2020, he “offered the driver of a vehicle he crashed into ‘cash and a check to not call the police.’”
After Griffin was arrested on Dec. 10, he allegedly told authorities that he was ashamed.
“Without incriminating myself, I just want to let you guys know that I’m ashamed you even know my name at all,” Griffin stated, according to the court filing. “In the time I’m with you guys, in the event I do anything inappropriate, I just want you to know that I’d feel the same way you guys would if I were in your situation. Thank you.”
Griffin’s attorney supplied the U.S. attorney with letters vouching for Griffin from his wife, father and four of his friends in August 2021.
Three of those friends and his wife have since withdrawn those letters, according to the court filing.
“One friend explained that he was ‘blatantly lied to’ about the nature of the investigation when he agreed to write on Griffin’s behalf,” the prosecutor wrote.
In laying out the case for Griffin’s detention, the U.S. attorney cited the government’s cases against convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell and convicted sex offender and singer R. Kelly.
Griffin is charged with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He faces anywhere from 10 years behind bars to life imprisonment if convicted.
He will be arraigned on Wednesday in Burlington, Vermont.
