Republican who chairs House panel says he based decision on testimony from Epstein’s longtime assistant Lesley Groff

Representative James Comer, the Republican who chairs the House committee on oversight and government reform, announced that he would be asking Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Epstein’s former attorney, to appear before the panel as part of its investigation into the late sex offender.

“I am going to ask Alan Dershowitz to come in, we will have questions for him and we will give him an opportunity to come in,” Comer said on Wednesday morning, adding that the decision was based on the testimony of Lesley Groff, Epstein’s longtime assistant, who testified before the committee on Tuesday, as well as “a meeting that I had afterwards with several of the Epstein survivors”.

Groff tells lawmakers ‘I am not a conspirator’ and that she had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes while working for him

Lesley Groff, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive assistant, testified Tuesday before the House oversight and reform committee, telling lawmakers that she had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes while working for him.

“I believe that my testimony will dispel the false notion that because of my employment with Epstein, I must have knowingly enabled or conspired with him to commit his evil acts,” Groff told lawmakers in her prepared opening remarks, obtained by the Guardian. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”