John Griffin, a former CNN producer, has been sentenced to over 19 years in prison for engaging in child sexual abuse crimes. He will also face an additional 15 years of supervised release.
Griffin was sentenced on Tuesday in a federal court in Vermont after pleading guilty to using interstate commerce to entice and coerce a 9-year-old girl into illegal sexual acts.
In reaching a plea deal with the government in Dec. 2022, an additional two counts of enticement of a minor against Griffin were dropped.
According to the plea deal, Griffin, who has a residence in Ludlow, Vt, used Kik and Google Hangouts to communicate with people purporting to be parents of minor daughters, conveying to them, among other ideas, that a “woman is a woman regardless of her age,” and that women should be sexually subservient and inferior to men.
In June 2020, he advised a mother of 9- and 13-year-old daughters that the mother’s responsibility was to see that her older daughter was “trained properly.”
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont, Griffin later transferred $3,000 to the mother for plane tickets so the mother and her 9-year-old daughter could fly from Nevada to Boston’s Logan Airport. The mother and child flew to Boston in July of 2020, where Griffin picked them up and drove them to his house in Ludlow, Vt. At the house, the daughter was directed to engage in and did engage in, unlawful sexual activity.
He was arrested on Dec. 10, 2021, a day after being indicted by a grand jury, and CNN, for whom he worked, immediately terminated his job.
Griffin joined CNN in 2013 and was former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s anchor producer during his time as the co-host of CNN New Day. Before joining CNN, Griffin had stops as a producer/writer at ABC News, Fox News, and CBS News.
John Griffin is the son of the well-known broadcast TV talent agent Jim Griffin. Now retired, Griffin’s client roster once included names such as the late Regis Philbin, Willard Scott, Emeril Lagasse, Deborah Norville, Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera, Chris Cuomo and many more.
Upon release, Griffin cannot have contact with people under the age of 18, except in the presence of an adult who has been approved by a probation officer and is prohibited from being in areas where children congregate, such as schools, playgrounds, and theme parks, unless approved by a probation officer beforehand.