In this photo illustration, collectible Pokémon cards are viewed in a store on January 23, 2026 in Pasadena, California. A surge in value for Pokémon cards in recent years has triggered a string of robberies in Southern California, along with New York, Texas, and Massachusetts in recent months. (Photo Illustration by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
(CALIFORNIA) — A California card store became the latest target in a string of Pokémon trading card thefts after suspects burglarized a location and made off with the collectibles in minutes.
Masked suspects were caught on surveillance cameras leaping over display cases at The Card Lab in Brentwood on Saturday night and stealing $15,000 worth of Pokémon cards in under 40 seconds, police said.
The suspects drove off in a Nissan Altima and are still on the loose, according to police.
Ronnie Hackett, The Card Lab’s owner who opened the store two months ago, told ABC affiliate KGO that the manager was on another level of the store when the theft went down.
“My first thought was ‘I hope that my employee was OK,’ and I was relieved to see that she was,” he told the station.
The store was closed for a few days to get additional security measures in place.
The Brentwood theft took place days after a similar threat went down on the other side of the country.
Masked thieves burglarized Big Pack Hobby Shop in Rochelle Park, New Jersey, on Thursday, smashing through a glass door and stealing $40,000 to $50,000 worth of cards and merchandise, according to police.
The burglary happened in under two minutes and was caught on camera, authorities said.
“This was like a dream of mine opening the card store, we just celebrated our three-year anniversary yesterday actually, this is a passion of mine, as much as it sucks and it could happen again, I’m just going to keep going because this is what I love,” Pablo Rancier, the store’s owner, told WABC.
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in a photo released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)
(NEW YORK) — Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive secretary Lesley Groff told the House Oversight Committee Tuesday that the convicted sex offender was a “master manipulator” and that she was unaware of his crimes, according to multiple sources familiar with her closed-door testimony.
Groff is appearing as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which to date has included interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Epstein’s longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a prison guard who was on duty the night Epstein died in his jail cell.
Groff, who worked for Epstein in New York for more than 18 years, was once described by her boss as an “extension of my brain.”
Among her job requirements were scheduling Epstein’s frequent meetings with celebrities, scientists and politicians, booking Epstein’s daily massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging travel for women linked to Epstein. She was one of four women listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007.
According to federal prosecutors, “numerous victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was responsible for scheduling massages during which they were sexually abused.”
Groff told lawmakers Tuesday that she never had a romantic or sexual relationship with Epstein and said the message appointments she scheduled for Epstein with young women and girls were with massage therapists, source said. Groff could not recall scheduling massages for anyone other than Epstein and former Goldman Sachs chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler at a spa, and said the masseuses were both male and female, sources said. She testified that she would receive the names of the massage therapists from Epstein, and that he instructed her to schedule the massages.
Sources said Groff told lawmakers that she scheduled most of the massages for Epstein’s New York residence. Groff testified that she never witnessed or knew of any sexual abuse.
Groff testified that she never met a single massage therapist in person and believes that Epstein — or Bella Klein, a one-time Epstein associate — would pay them with “petty cash,” sources said. Groff told lawmakers that she would occasionally send cash via couriers, said sources.
Groff testified that when Epstein was arrested in 2006, he told Groff that he was blackmailed, sources said. She told lawmakers that she did not know she was tied to the 2008 non-prosecution agreement as a listed co-conspirator, which she described that as a “scarlet letter” she wears to this day, according to sources.
Groff said Epstein told her again after the 2008 plea deal that he was blackmailed. Groff said she resigned in 2019 when Epstein was arrested again, sources said.
She described to lawmakers that her relationship with Epstein was strictly business, sources said. Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell told Groff that she should not associate with their friends or colleagues, and insisted their business was none of her business, sources added.
She told lawmakers that Epstein had a lot of people in his circle, and she did not find it odd that he had a “large” massage list for individuals across the world, sources said.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on his way in Tuesday morning that he believed Groff has “information that is very valuable to our investigation.”
“Hopefully, we’ll learn more today,” Comer said.
The chairman reiterated that the committee is conducting “the most thorough investigation ever of Epstein.”
“We’re bringing in the most important people in the whole Epstein criminal enterprise that are still alive, and hopefully we’ll get the truth to the American people. If there’s an opportunity for accountability, we sure want to see that happen,” he said.
Groff did not speak to reporters upon her arrival.
Last September at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda specifically called out Groff, alleging that Groff had called her so many times to go to Epstein’s place for a massage that she dropped out of high school before the ninth grade.
Lacerda — who was one of the key witnesses that led to Epstein’s 2019 indictment for child sex trafficking — told ABC News in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.
“Anything that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Lacerda told ABC News in an interview, “had to go through Lesley Groff.”
Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined comment in advance of her appearance on Capitol Hill. He previously told ABC News that Groff “never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever.”
“Ms. Groff, a parent herself, is incredibly shocked and deeply upset about the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein,” Bachner said.
After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors included Groff in a list of potential co-conspirators and sent her a subpoena. Bachner informed the government, just four days after Epstein’s arrest, that his client “would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination” if called to appear before a grand jury.
Groff, now 59, eventually interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that “making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make” for Epstein, and said that scheduling massages was “around 1%” of her job.
Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told the FBI she was immediately struck by Epstein’s lifestyle and the company he kept, describing it as “pretty incredible to see all the people Epstein dealt with in politics, television, et cetera.”
“Groff felt, ‘Wow,'” according to an FBI account of her interview.
Groff was initially paid a salary of $60,000 a year, but saw it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein four years later, DOJ records show.
The New York Times reported in 2005 that Epstein bought Groff a new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to ensure she would keep working for him.
“There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood,” Epstein said of Groff, according to the newspaper’s account.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Federal prosecutors in 2021 informed Groff that she would not be charged, according to a statement from her attorneys.
“After a more than two-year investigation by the Department of Justice into Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct, which included lengthy interviews of witnesses and a thorough review of relevant communications, we have been informed that no criminal charges will be brought against Lesley Groff,” the statement said.
Lacerda said she hopes the congressional investigators press Groff for answers.
“I just think that she should be honest about it so that we can have some accountability here,” she said.
NYPD SRG officers push back a crowd outside of a watch party at Bryant Park for Game 3 of the NBA Finals between New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs on June 8, 2026 in New York City. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — While most New York Knicks fans remained peaceful following the home team’s first loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, police said some were arrested in clashes with law enforcement officers and for other rowdy behavior.
At least 21 people were arrested following Monday night’s Game 3 of the championship series played at Madison Square Garden, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).
After the game, in which the Spurs broke the Knicks’ 13-game playoff winning streak, fans spilled out of a watch party in Manhattan’s Bryant Park and onto 42nd Street, where some allegedly turned violent.
The NYPD said that in the immediate aftermath of the game, several people allegedly threw beer bottles at or punched police officers, climbed on light poles and scaffolding, got into fistfights, and jumped on top of cars and taxi cabs.
Eight people were arrested on charges of assaulting police officers, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental administration, according to the NYPD. Thirteen others were issued criminal court summonses for disorderly conduct, the NYPD said.
Videos shared on social media showed some fans clashing with police officers, and other videos captured apparent Knicks fans attacking San Antonio fans on the streets, ripping off their Spurs jerseys.
One video showed NYPD officers wearing riot helmets escorting several people wearing Spurs jerseys to a taxi cab to protect them from a crowd yelling at them.
With President Donald Trump attending Monday night’s game, the NYPD and the Secret Service put Madison Square Garden on lockdown, creating a security perimeter around the Garden and only allowing fans with game tickets or a legitimate excuse to get close to the arena.
Earlier on Monday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced that a fan watch party scheduled to occur outside of Madison Square Garden on Monday night was canceled, but other watch parties were scheduled around the city, including the one in Bryant Park.
Tisch said the watch party outside the Garden will resume for Game 4 on Wednesday night.
The Knicks lead the best-of-seven series two games to one in the team’s quest to win its first NBA championship since 1973.
“We will have no tolerance for violence, particularly violence against police officers, destruction of property, climbing on light poles or structures, blocking emergency vehicles or other chaotic behavior,” Tisch said at a Monday morning press conference.
Nick Reiner appears with Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene during his arraignment in Los Angeles County Superior Court on February 23, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chris Torres-Pool/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Nick Reiner says he needs money from his trust fund to help pay for his defense team, specifically to rehire famed defense attorney Alan Jackson, according to a new court filing. The petition alleges that Reiner is entitled to the funds in his trust, which were required to be released to him when he turned 30, something he claims did not happen.
Reiner, 32, was charged with the murders of his parents, renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner, in December.
Reiner was previously represented by Jackson, but Jackson abruptly resigned from the case in January for reasons that were not shared at the time.
The petition alleges Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, had initially agreed to pay Jackson’s fees, but in January, “Nick learned that Jackson and his firm were forced to withdraw because the anticipated funding did not materialize, and the Public Defender was appointed to take over Nick’s defense.”
It is not known why funding from Reiner’s siblings was unavailable.
“Since then, Nick has repeatedly asked that Jackson’s firm resume its representation if funds become available,” the petition states, adding that Jackson “has reaffirmed not only that he ‘stands ready, willing, and able to resume [his] representation,’ but that he is ‘committed to representing’ Nick and ‘willing to consider reasonable alternatives to the original fee arrangement.'”
“These are not estate assets, and Nick does not seek them from his parents’ estate,” the petition adds. “They are his own funds. Nick has no other means — to pay for his legal expenses, or for his basic support needs while incarcerated.”
The petition specifically notes that the trust in question was created for Reiner by his parents “more than 30 years ago, when Nick was an infant,” and that similar “children’s” trusts were also created for his siblings.
The petition argues that these children’s trusts were “funded independently” of the larger family trusts that hold the Reiner family’s estate, and that the terms of the independent trusts required one half to be paid out when the beneficiary turned 30, with the other half disbursed when they turned 35.
“Nick turned 30 on September 14, 2023 — more than two and a half years ago — at which point his right to one-half of the Trust vested and became due to him as a matter of right. But he did not receive his Mandatory Age-30 Distribution then, and he has not received it since,” the petition alleges.
The petition claims the “Current Trustee” overseeing Reiner’s independent trust “has offered a shifting series of excuses and justifications, none of which can be reconciled with the Trust’s plain terms — most recently, unsubstantiated ‘concerns’ about Nick’s so-called competence to ‘manage a trust.'”
It adds, “Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation.”
Jackson told reporters in January that he “had to withdraw as Nick Reiner’s counsel” due to “circumstances beyond our control, but more importantly, circumstances beyond Nick’s control.”
“Sadly, it’s made it impossible for us to continue our representation of Nick,” Jackson said at the time.
Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Dec. 14, 2025. The night before their deaths, Nick Reiner — who had been living on his parents’ property at the time — got into an argument with Rob Reiner at a holiday party and was seen acting strangely, sources told ABC News in December.
Nick Reiner was taken into custody in downtown Los Angeles hours after the bodies were discovered. He was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders, to which he pleaded not guilty.
He remains in jail on no bail. His is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing in September.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the description of the trust fund in question, which is an individual “children’s” trust and not a family trust.
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in a photo released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)
(NEW YORK) — The House Oversight Committee is conducting a closed-door interview Tuesday with a woman so ubiquitous in Jeffrey Epstein’s life that a search for her name in the Justice Department’s Epstein files returns more than 160,000 results.
Lesley Groff worked as an executive secretary to Epstein in New York for more than 18 years, and was once described by her boss as an “extension of my brain.”
Among her job requirements were scheduling Epstein’s frequent meetings with celebrities, scientists and politicians, booking Epstein’s daily massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging travel for women linked to Epstein. She was one of four women listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007.
According to federal prosecutors, “numerous victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was responsible for scheduling massages during which they were sexually abused.”
Groff is appearing as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which to date has included interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Epstein’s longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a prison guard who was on duty the night Epstein died in his jail cell.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on his way in Tuesday morning that he believes Groff has “information that is very valuable to our investigation.”
“Hopefully, we’ll learn more today,” Comer said.
The chairman reiterated that the committee is conducting “the most thorough investigation ever of Epstein.”
“We’re bringing in the most important people in the whole Epstein criminal enterprise that are still alive, and hopefully we’ll get the truth to the American people. If there’s an opportunity for accountability, we sure want to see that happen,” he said.
Groff did not speak to reporters upon her arrival.
Last September at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda specifically called out Groff, alleging that Groff had called her so many times to go to Epstein’s place for a massage that she dropped out of high school before the ninth grade.
Lacerda — who was one of the key witnesses that led to Epstein’s 2019 indictment for child sex trafficking — told ABC News in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.
“Anything that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein, ” Lacerda told ABC News in an interview, “had to go through Lesley Groff.”
Through her attorneys, Groff has denied any knowledge of, or participation in, Epstein’s crimes.
Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined comment in advance of her appearance on Capitol Hill. He previously told ABC News that Groff “never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever.”
“Ms. Groff, a parent herself, is incredibly shocked and deeply upset about the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein,” Bachner said.
After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors included Groff in a list of potential co-conspirators and sent her a subpoena. Bachner informed the government, just four days after Epstein’s arrest, that his client “would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination” if called to appear before a grand jury.
Groff, now 59, eventually interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that “making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make” for Epstein, and said that scheduling massages was “around 1%” of her job.
Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told the FBI she was immediately struck by Epstein’s lifestyle and the company he kept, describing it as “pretty incredible to see all the people Epstein dealt with in politics, television, et cetera.”
“Groff felt, ‘Wow,'” according to an FBI account of her interview.
Groff was initially paid a salary of $60,000 a year, but saw it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein four years later, DOJ records show.
The New York Times reported in 2005 that Epstein bought Groff a new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to ensure she would keep working for him.
“There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood,” Epstein said of Groff, according to the newspaper’s account.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Federal prosecutors in 2021 informed Groff that she would not be charged, according to a statement from her attorneys.
“After a more than two-year investigation by the Department of Justice into Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct, which included lengthy interviews of witnesses and a thorough review of relevant communications, we have been informed that no criminal charges will be brought against Lesley Groff,” the statement said.
Lacerda said she hopes the congressional investigators press Groff for answers.
“I just think that she should be honest about it so that we can have some accountability here,” she said.
Oversight Committee member Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) said he’s heading into the interview with Groff already skeptical of her denials.
“She will argue that she didn’t know anything, but I find that to be hard to believe,” he said. “I think at best she was blissfully trying to be ignorant, but probably wasn’t.”
A vehicle belonging to Vance Boelter is towed from the alley behind his home on June 14, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against Vance Boelter, the man charged in the 2025 fatal shooting of a Minnesota state representative and her husband, and another attack that left a second lawmaker and his wife wounded, according to a Department of Justice spokesperson.
Prosecutors declined to pursue the ultimate punishment against 58-year-old Boelter because a federal judge ruled earlier this year in an unrelated murder case that interstate stalking charges do not rise to the level to support a capital crime, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Toledo police chief, Michael Trinley speaks at a press conference about the festival shooting, on June 9, 2026, in Toledo, Ohio. (Toledo Police Department)
(TOLEDO, Ohio) — Investigators are searching for two individuals believed to have opened fire at an Ohio festival last weekend, leaving 12 people shot.
The suspects are believed to be two males between the ages of 18 and 24, Toledo Police Chief Michael Trinley said at a press conference Tuesday.
Several people of interest have been brought in for interviews and investigators have executed several search warrants, but no arrests have been made at this point, Trinley said.
Investigators believe they have “significant leads on who’s involved” and are hoping to make arrests “shortly,” Trinley said.
The 12 people who were shot are expected to survive, according to Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. Some of the victims were intentionally targeted, but the majority were innocent bystanders, Kapszukiewicz said.
Investigators believe only three of those shot were part of the activity that happened, Trinley said.
Investigators believe the shooting stemmed from a dispute involving two rival groups, Trinley said.
Two groups were “disrespecting each other and it led into a little bit of a foot chase” before one individual assaulted another person. At that point, one person pulled out a firearm and started shooting. Someone from the rival group then pulled out his firearm and started returning fire,” Trinley said.
Investigators determined what happened based on reviewing video evidence and conducting interviews, Trinley said.
Investigators are currently processing two guns and comparing them to shell casings found at the scene, Trinley said.
Nick Reiner appears with Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene during his arraignment in Los Angeles County Superior Court on February 23, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chris Torres-Pool/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Nick Reiner says he needs unpaid money from his family trust to help pay for his defense team, specifically to rehire famed defense attorney Alan Jackson, according to a new court filing.
Reiner was charged with the murders of his parents, renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner, in December.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
President Donald Trump and his grandchildren Kai Madison Trump attend the NBA finals game between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs at the Madison Square Garden in New York on June 8, 2026. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump faced apparent boos from the crowd of passionate Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
He was seen standing in a box during the National Anthem next to New York Knicks owner James Dolan at Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Trump, who has sat courtside at many Knicks games before being elected president, said he was personally invited by Dolan, who is a longtime friend of the president.
Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were both attending the game and cheering on the Knicks as they sought another win in the best-of-seven series.
“They’re really great, a great team. I’m happy for Jim because Jim has really been fighting hard to produce such a team,” Trump told reporters last week.
Trump was seen inside his box alongside his granddaughter, Kai Trump, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Jared Kushner, among others.
When asked about attending the highly anticipated game, Mamdani said, “I’m paying for my own ticket,” in an interview with radio station 1010 Wins on Friday.
Trump and Mamdani have had personal meetings at the White House ever since the Democratic Socialist won the 2025 mayoral election.
However, Mamdani indicated on Thursday that he will be “in a very different section of the stadium” than the president during the game. He dodged several questions about whether he would meet with Trump during his trip to New York.
“If I do see him, I will let him know what I’ve said time and again, which is we’re excited to welcome anyone and everyone who’s rooting for the Knicks,” Mamdani told 1010 Wins Friday.
The mayor previously watched the Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on May 21 and was seated high up in the cheaper seats along with city public advocate Jumaane Williams.
Their attendance was unannounced before the game.
Mamdani indicated that once again he would not be in the best seats in the Garden for Monday’s matchup.
“I can tell you that I won’t be courtside or in a suite, but I can’t wait to see the game,” he told the radio station.
Mamdani has been vocally critical of the Trump administration’s policy on immigration, government cuts and threats to cut funding to Democratic run states and cities.
During the election, Trump vocally decried Mamdani, calling him a “communist” and warning that New York would be in a worse place under his leadership.
The president’s tone changed on Nov. 21, when Mamdani met with Trump in the Oval Office and they emerged with a much more amicable relationship.
“I think this mayor could do some things that are going to be really great,” Trump said in a news conference after the meeting, where he smiled, shook Mamdani’s hand and even patted him on the back.
The mayor and president met another time in the winter and Mamdani has said he has spoken to Trump on the phone numerous times about matters to the city.
Mamdani has maintained his opposition to many of the president’s policies but has maintained he is open to working with him to help New Yorkers, especially when it comes to driving down housing costs.
There was a chaotic scene in the streets of New York after the game, with people climbing on top of cars and up scaffolding after the Knicks lost. Police were seen deploying pepper spray.
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in a photo released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)
(NEW YORK) — The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday will conduct a closed-door interview with a woman so ubiquitous in Jeffrey Epstein’s life that a search for her name in the Justice Department’s Epstein files returns more than 160,000 results.
Lesley Groff worked as an executive secretary to Epstein in New York for more than 18 years, and was once described by her boss as an “extension of my brain.”
Among her job requirements were scheduling Epstein’s frequent meetings with celebrities, scientists and politicians, booking Epstein’s daily massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging travel for women linked to Epstein. She was one of four women listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007.
According to federal prosecutors, “numerous victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was responsible for scheduling massages during which they were sexually abused.”
Groff will appear as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which to date has included interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Epstein’s longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a prison guard who was on duty the night Epstein died in his jail cell.
Last September at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda specifically called out Groff, alleging that Groff had called her so many times to go to Epstein’s place for a massage that she dropped out of high school before the ninth grade.
Lacerda — who was one of the key witnesses that led to Epstein’s 2019 indictment for child sex trafficking — told ABC News in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.
“Anything that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein, ” Lacerda told ABC News in an interview, “had to go through Lesley Groff.”
Through her attorneys, Groff has denied any knowledge of, or participation in, Epstein’s crimes.
Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined comment in advance of her appearance on Capitol Hill. He previously told ABC News that Groff “never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever.”
“Ms. Groff, a parent herself, is incredibly shocked and deeply upset about the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein,” Bachner said.
After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors included Groff in a list of potential co-conspirators and sent her a subpoena. Bachner informed the government, just four days after Epstein’s arrest, that his client “would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination” if called to appear before a grand jury.
Groff, now 59, eventually interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that “making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make” for Epstein, and said that scheduling massages was “around 1%” of her job.
Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told the FBI she was immediately struck by Epstein’s lifestyle and the company he kept, describing it as “pretty incredible to see all the people Epstein dealt with in politics, television, et cetera.”
“Groff felt, ‘Wow,'” according to an FBI account of her interview.
Groff was initially paid a salary of $60,000 a year, but saw it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein four years later, DOJ records show.
The New York Times reported in 2005 that Epstein bought Groff a new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to ensure she would keep working for him.
“There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood,” Epstein said of Groff, according to the newspaper’s account.
Banking records included in the DOJ’s Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.
Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that “someone was trying to blackmail him.”
When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.
“She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out,” Bachner wrote.
According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim — who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse — told the FBI that she felt Groff “knew that the massage appointments were sexual” and “felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on,” according to the DOJ records.
Federal prosecutors in 2021 informed Groff that she would not be charged, according to a statement from her attorneys.
“After a more than two-year investigation by the Department of Justice into Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct, which included lengthy interviews of witnesses and a thorough review of relevant communications, we have been informed that no criminal charges will be brought against Lesley Groff,” the statement said.
Lacerda said she hopes the congressional investigators press Groff for answers.
“I just think that she should be honest about it so that we can have some accountability here,” she said.
Oversight Committee member Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) said he’s heading into the interview with Groff already skeptical of her denials.
“She will argue that she didn’t know anything, but I find that to be hard to believe,” he said. “I think at best she was blissfully trying to be ignorant, but probably wasn’t.”
