A CNN producer has been arrested on charges that he enticed women and their underage daughters to engage in illicit sexual activity at his Vermont ski house.
John Griffin, 44, allegedly used messaging apps to persuade parents to let him train their young daughters to be sexually submissive, telling them that “a woman is a woman regardless of her age” and that women should be “sexually subservient and inferior to men,” according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.
According to the US Attorney, Griffin told a mother of 9- and 13-year-old daughters that it was her responsibility to see that her older daughter was “trained properly” and later sent her $3,000 for plane tickets to fly with the younger daughter from Nevada to Boston. They made the flight in July 2020, the US Attorney said, and Griffin picked up them and drove them to his home in Ludlow, Vermont.
“At the house, the daughter was directed to engage in, and did engage in, unlawful sexual activity,” the office said.
In two other incidents, the indictment says that Griffin proposed a “virtual training course” that would include him directing a mother and her 14-year-old daughter to remove their clothing and touch each other, and another proposal in which he suggested that a mother and her 16-year-old daughter take a “little mother-daughter trip” to Vermont for sexual training.
The indictment charges Griffin — who lives in Stamford, Connecticut — with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He faces a mandatory 10 years to life on each count. Additionally, prosecutors said they intend “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.”
Griffin appeared in federal court in New Haven on Friday via Zoom, when US Magistrate Judge Robert Spector said he would order Griffin transferred to Vermont to face trial, the Stamford Advocate reported. Court records say he is expected to be arraigned in Vermont on December 15, the paper said.
A CNN spokesperson told the Advocate that the company takes the charges “incredibly seriously.”
“We only learned of his arrest this afternoon and have suspended him pending investigation,” the spokesperson said on Friday.
Griffin’s LinkedIn profile says he has worked for CNN since 2013, and previously worked at ABC News, Fox News, and CBS News.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast
[Featured image: John Griffin/Twitter]
