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He denies all charges.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Dec 23, 2021
The FBI investigation into allegations of child sex trafficking against a former CNN producer has unearthed even more disturbing claims.
John Griffin has pleaded not guilty to three counts of child sex trafficking and faces anywhere from 10 years behind bars to life imprisonment if convicted.
Griffin, 44, was arrested by the FBI on Friday after being accused of luring mothers and their underage daughters for “sexual training” and unlawful sexual activities at his Vermont home.
Griffin had worked for CNN for about eight years at the time of his arrest.
Newly released information says Griffin is accused of luring girls as young as 9 years old to his home to be sexually abused but the producer allegedly claimed to have sexually abused children even younger.
CNN's John Griffin allegedly groomed and sexually abused minors.
Griffin allegedly used messaging apps like Kik and Google Hangouts to speak with parents of underage girls.
He tried to “persuade parents to allow him to train their daughters to be sexually submissive," according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.
Griffin believed that a “woman is a woman regardless of her age” and that women should be “subservient to men” because they are “inferior.”
Griffin allegedly bribed the family of a 9-year-old girl.
In one incident cited in the indictment in June of 2020, Griffin reportedly advised the mother of 9-year-old and 13-year-old girls to make sure that the older child was “trained properly.”
Griffin allegedly gave the mother $3,000 for plane tickets so she and the 9-year-old girl could fly from Nevada to Boston, Massachusetts.
It was in July of 2020 that the mother and daughter flew out to Boston where Griffin picked them up and given a ride to his Ludlow, Massachusetts home where he engaged in unlawful sexual activity with the underage girl.
The mother, Heather Carriker was arrested in August 2020 on charges of child abuse, sexual assault against a child under 14, and lewdness with a minor under 14.
John Griffin allegedly admitted to sexually abusing a baby.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Vermont said Griffin made the distubing admission to a woman online whilst also claiming to have "sexually trained" a 7-year-old.
In January 2020, Griffin allegedly paid a woman $30,000 for a meeting with her and her daughter.
In March 2020, Griffin allegedly offered a different woman $1,200 to have sex with him — and told her he would increase the payment to $5,000 if children were present during the encounter.
Griffin is also facing charges for attempting to entice two children to engage in sexual activity online.
One of the instances took place in April of 2020 in which Griffin tried to push a mother and daughter to engage in a “virtual training session” on a video call.
The incident allegedly involved him trying to guide the mother and her 14-year-old daughter to strip and touch one another.
In another reported incident, Griffin suggested to a woman who appeared to be the mother of a 16-year-old girl that the two of them should take a mother-daughter trip to his home in Ludlow for the sole purpose of sexual training.
“The charges against Mr. Griffin are deeply disturbing,” a CNN spokesperson said. “We only learned of his arrest yesterday afternoon and have suspended him pending investigation.”
The federal government has since made plans to confiscate Griffin’s Ludlow home, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla, which were all used in the crimes.
John Griffin previously worked with Chris Cuomo.
According to Griffin’s LinkedIn profile, he claims to have worked “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Chris Cuomo since starting at CNN in April of 2013.
Griffin was allegedly “seeing him through each show and producing live breaking news across the country and around the world.”
Prior to working at CNN, Griffin worked for ABC News, Fox News, and CBS News.
Cuomo was recently fired from CNN after providing advice and public relations assistance in connection with his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s, sexual harrasment misconduct.
Documents that were released showed that Cuomo offered to help Andrew Cuomo find out how many women were accusing him of sexual harrassment.
Chris Cuomo is also facing sexual harrassment allegations from a former colleague who says he harrassed her while working at ABC News.
Griffin was indicted by a federal jury in Vermont on Friday and arraigned in a New Haven, Connecticut, federal courthouse that same day.
The former CNN producer is facing a mandatory sentence of 10 years imprisonment and up to life in prison if convicted of each charge.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Follow her on Instagram.