Ex-CNN producer John Griffin pleads guilty to child sex crime. Griffin, 45, is subject to a minimum 10-year sentence and a maximum $250k fine. He will be sentenced in March 2023.
According to the Associated Press, John Griffin, a former senior producer for CNN who was charged with child sex offenses, entered a guilty plea in federal court after being indicted a year ago.
As part of the accord, the federal government withdrew two of the three charges brought against Griffin. According to the AP, he “must pay full restitution to the victims, an amount which will be determined by the court” and “has agreed to forfeit a Tesla vehicle, and electronic items and to donate half of the proceeds from the sale of his Vermont home and the upcoming sale of a Mercedes vehicle into the court registry.”
Griffin, 45, is subject to a minimum 10-year sentence and a maximum $250k fine. He will be sentenced in March 2023.
The Stamford, Connecticut resident was charged with forcing parents to consent to their younger children engaging in sexual activity with him at his Vermont ski home while the girls were as young as seven years old in a federal indictment.
A grand jury in Vermont originally indicted the CNN veteran “with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.”
In a statement released in December of last year, the Vermont U.S. Attorney’s office claimed that Griffin “sought to persuade parents to allow him to train their daughters to be sexually submissive.”
“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 U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont alleged.
Griffin allegedly said in texts included in the unsealed indictment that there is a “wanton whore” at “the core of any” female and that “a woman is a woman regardless of her age.”
Griffin wrote in texts to the mother of two children, aged 9 and 13, the following: “One of the big lies of this society is that women are delicate innocent angels and they are in actuality, naturally, the dirtiest sluts possible, in EVERY metric.”
The CNN producer reportedly texted the mother, “When handled appropriately, a woman is a woman regardless of her age” and advised her to ensure her 13-year-old daughter was “trained properly.”
According to the indictment, he “sexually trained girls as young as 7 years old” and told a mother that her 14-year-old daughter “would be a good candidate for such training.” He allegedly suggested that training begin with a video call in which he “planned to instruct the 14-year-old and her mother to remove their clothing and touch each other” and that in-person meetings would include “spanking” and “c—k worship.”
Griffin worked as a producer for CNN’s now-defunct morning show “New Day.” He had been with the network for eight years. He was fired by CNN immediately after his arrest.
A 9-year-old “Jane Doe.” had previously filed a $15 million civil lawsuit against the ex-CNN producer.
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