Dec. 13, 2022
LUDLOW, Vt. – John Griffin, a former CNN producer, pleaded guilty to a child sex charge on Monday for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl after luring her to his Vermont ski house.
Griffin, 45, was originally indicted in December 2021. He pleaded guilty in federal court to using interstate commerce for the enticement of a minor as part of a plea deal in which the two remaining counts of enticement of a minor were dropped, the New York Post reported.
He faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison when he is sentenced March 20, 2023, along with paying restitution to the victim — an amount yet to be determined by the court.
John Griffin asked parents to bring their young daughters to his Vermont ski house for sexual training. (Twitter)
Griffin also faces a fine of up to $250,000 and will likely be ordered to register as a sex offender and must participate in treatment.
Law Officer article, Dec. 12, 2021
LUDLOW, Vt. – A veteran CNN producer has been indicted on charges of luring girls to his Vermont vacation home for “sexual subservience” training, according to authorities.
John Griffin, 44, who worked “shoulder to shoulder” with now disgraced ex-anchor Chris Cuomo, allegedly used messaging apps to befriend and persuade mothers of young girls, telling them “a woman is a woman regardless of her age,” and that he should be the one to “train” their daughters sexually, according to the indictment.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont provided the following overview:
From April to July of 2020, Griffin utilized the messaging applications Kik and Google Hangouts to communicate with people purporting to be parents of minor daughters, conveying to them, among other ideas, that a “woman is a woman regardless of her age,” and that women should be sexually subservient and inferior to men. On these communication platforms, Griffin sought to persuade parents to allow him to train their daughters to be sexually submissive. In June of 2020, Griffin advised a mother of 9- and 13-year-old daughters that the mother’s responsibility was to see that her older daughter was “trained properly.” Griffin later transferred over $3,000 to the mother for plane tickets so the mother and her 9-year-old daughter could fly from Nevada to Boston’s Logan airport. The mother and child flew to Boston in July of 2020, where Griffin picked them up in his Tesla and drove them to his Ludlow house. At the house, the daughter was directed to engage in, and did engage in, unlawful sexual activity.
The indictment also includes specific allegations that Griffin attempted to entice two other children over the internet to engage in sexual activity. In April of 2020, Griffin proposed to engage in a “virtual training session” over a video chat that would include him instructing the mother and her 14-year-old daughter to remove their clothing and touch each other at his direction. In June of 2020, Griffin proposed to a purported mother of a 16-year-old daughter that she take a “little mother-daughter trip” to Griffin’s Ludlow ski house for sexual training involving the child.
Griffin was arrested Friday by FBI agents after a federal grand jury in Vermont charged him with three counts of attempting to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
The CNN producer faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on each count, according to the US Attorney’s office.
Moreover, “the indictment includes a notice that states the federal government intends to seek the forfeiture of Griffin’s Ludlow house, his Tesla, a Mercedes, and other property that was used in the commission of the charged offenses,” according to the press statement.
On his LinkedIn profile, Griffin boasts of having worked “shoulder-to-shoulder with lead anchor Chris Cuomo, seeing him through each show and producing live breaking news across the country and around the world.”
John Griffin worked “shoulder to shoulder” with disgraced CNN anchor Chris Cuomo for years. (Facebook)
According to the New York Post, they worked together during Cuomo’s five years as co-anchor of CNN’a “A New Day.”
“Griffin, who calls himself a ‘father’ on his Twitter feed and appears to have three young children, worked at CNN for almost nine years,” the Post reported. He also has prior experience working as a producer at ABC News, Fox News and CBS.
