The Pervert Gets 19 Years *
Former CNN producer John Griffin was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison on Tuesday for luring a 9-year-old girl and her mother to his ski home in Vermont in 2020. Griffin, 45 years old at the time, had pleaded guilty in December to one count of a three-count indictment, while the government dropped the remaining two counts of enticement of a minor against him.
As part of his sentencing, Griffin was also issued 15 years of supervised release with conditions after serving his prison term, as detailed in court documents. The disgraced former producer has been in federal custody since his indictment in December 2021 on three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors into engaging in unlawful sexual activity.
Griffin's career at CNN came to an abrupt end following his indictment, as the network swiftly terminated his employment. Prior to his arrest, he had worked as a producer for the Chris Cuomo show and most recently for CNN senior political analyst John Avlon.
The 10-page indictment, issued by a grand jury, reveals disturbing details of Griffin's actions. It alleges that he frequently utilized the messaging application Kik and Google Hangouts to entice women with young daughters to meet him at his Vermont ski house. There, he claimed to provide "sexual training" on how to be "submissive" to men. Federal authorities revealed that Griffin even bragged in internet chats about training girls as young as 7 years old.
According to court documents, Griffin sent a total of $3,350 to the adoptive mother of the 9-year-old girl, who resided in Nevada, for their travel from Nevada to Boston. Griffin then picked them up and drove them to his Vermont home, where the indictment states that "the child was directed to engage in and did engage in illegal sexual activity."
The young girl, now 11 years old, and her guardian have filed a lawsuit against Griffin, seeking justice for the alleged heinous acts committed against her while at his Ludlow, Vermont residence.