CNN Producer Charged with Sex Crimes against Children, Faces Life in Prison
John Griffin worked with Chris Cuomo
© press
A CNN staffer is facing life in prison after being charged with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to entice underage girls to engage in sexual activity.
Producer, John Griffin, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday.
Giffin, 44, attempted to persuade parents to allow him to train their young daughters to be sexually submissive, the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont said.
The Department of Justice statement reads:
"According to the indictment, 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."
© press
"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 statement says.
"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."
Griffin attempted to use the internet to lure children into engaging in unlawful sexual activities.
"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," the indictment reads.
© press
"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."
FBI Special AgentJaneen DiGuiseppi of the Albany Field Office described the allegations as "deeply disturbing."
#FBI Albany SAC statement regarding the arrest of CT resident John Griffin by our Rutland, VT Resident Agency. @USAO_VT release here: https://t.co/mYOr6ZcpdN pic.twitter.com/3yhjn3NYqi
— FBI Albany (@FBIAlbany) December 10, 2021
According to the DOJ, each of the three counts has a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment, and a maximum of life imprisonment.
The indictment 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."
Griffin has been an employee of CNN since 2013.
"Griffin was once a producer for the Chris Cuomo show and was most recently a producer for CNN senior political analyst John Avlon," the CT Insider reported.
CNN issued a statement following the allegations.
"We take the charges against Mr. Griffin incredibly seriously," a CNN spokesperson said on Friday, according to Mediaite.
"We only learned of his arrest this afternoon and have suspended him pending investigation."
"Griffin appeared Friday afternoon in New Haven federal court via Zoom. Judge Robert Spector said he would file an order for Griffin to be transferred to Vermont," according to the Stamford Advocate.
Griffin describes himself as “AN ENTREPRENEURIAL PRODUCER WHO COMBINES UNCOMMON TECHNICAL SKILLS WITH EXCEPTIONAL, EXPERIENCED-HONED EDITORIAL JUDGMENT, ALWAYS WITH AN EYE TOWARDS ‘HOW CAN WE DO IT BETTER,’ ‘HOW CAN WE MOVE IT FORWARD,’ ‘HOW CAN WE ADD VALUE FOR THE AUDIENCE?’”
