CNN Staffer Tied to Chris Cuomo Indicted for Grooming Minors for Sex

A CNN producer who boasted having worked "shoulder to shoulder" with fired host Chris Cuomo has been indicted on three counts of attempting to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity, the New York Post reported.

John Griffin, 44, of Stamford, Connecticut, is accused of using messaging apps to befriend and persuade moms of young girls to allow him to "train" their daughters in "sexual subservience," according to the indictment from the U.S. Attorney of Vermont.

The news comes as Chris Cuomo was officially fired from CNN for helping his brother, disgraced former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, respond to sexual assault and harassment allegations. A YouGov poll found two-thirds of Americans agreed with CNN's decision to fire Chris Cuomo, who worked with Griffin for five years while he was co-host of CNN's "A New Day."

Griffin, a father himself, was arrested Dec. 10 by FBI agents after a federal grand jury in Vermont charged him on the three counts, which carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in jail on each count, according to the Post.

He allegedly told a mother "a woman is a woman regardless of her age," and got at least one mom of two daughters to bring a 13-year-old girl to his Ludlow getaway in June 2020, telling the mother it was her responsibility to see that she was "trained properly."

Griffin is alleged by the indictment to have sent the woman $3,000 for plane tickets from Nevada to Boston's Logan Airport, where he picked them up in his Tesla for the ride to Ludlow, Vermont for a "little mother-daughter trip," according to court documents.

The government will seek to take the ski house, Tesla, and a Mercedes used in the alleged crimes.

The indictment alleges "the daughter was directed to engage in, and did engage in, unlawful sexual activity" in the Ludlow house.

He also is accused of attempting to entice two other children over apps like Kik and Google Hangout into sexual activity, according to the report.

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