STAMFORD, Conn. (WCBS 880) -- A Connecticut man who has spent several years working as a producer at CNN has been indicted for allegedly attempting to lure children to his Vermont ski house for things like sexual “training.”
John Griffin, 44, of Stamford, was arrested Friday by the FBI after a Vermont federal grand jury charged him with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
According to an indictment, from April through July 2020, Griffin used the apps Kik and Google Hangout to talk with people purporting to be parents of minors, saying things like a “woman is a woman regardless of her age”
He also allegedly said women should be sexually subservient and inferior to men.
On the apps, Griffin tried to persuade parents to allow him to train their daughters to be “sexually submissive," the indictment said.
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In June 2020, Griffin told the mother of a 9-year-old and 13-year-old that it was her responsibility to see that her oldest daughter as “trained properly," according to officials.
Griffin soon after transferred $3,000 to that mom for plane tickets so she and her younger daughter could fly from Nevada to Boston, the charges said.
The two flew to Boston, where Griffin allegedly picked them up in a Tesla and drove them to his home in Ludlow, Vermont. It was there that the daughter engaged in “unlawful sexual activity.”
The indictment also said Griffin tried to entice two other children over the internet. He proposed a “virtual training session” over video chat where he would “instruct” a mother and her 14-year-old daughter to touch each other at his direction. Two months later, Griffin allegedly proposed to a mom and her 16-year-old daughter that they take a “mother-daughter trip” to his Vermont ski home for “training.”
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Griffin faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison on each count and a max of life, if convicted.
The indictment said the federal government will seek that he forfeit his ski home, his Tesla, another car and “other property that was used in the commission of the charged offenses.”
According to Griffin’s LinkedIn profile, he has worked at CNN since 2013 and was the lead anchor’s Senior Producer on CNN “New Day.” He also said he once worked “shoulder-to-shoulder” with now-fired anchor Chris Cuomo.
A CNN spokesperson told the Mail Online that Griffin was suspended, adding, “We take the charges against Mr. Griffin incredibly seriously.”