CNN Employee Faces 10 Years to Life For Sexually Abusing Underage Girls, Mothers

(Photo : Photo by David McNew/Newsmakers)
384757 02: The Cable News Network (CNN) logo adorns the top of CNN's offices on the Sunset Strip, January 24, 2000 in Hollywood, CA. CNN was hit with job cuts earlier this week after CNN's parent company, Time-Warner, Inc., completed its merger with America Online, Inc.

CNN senior producer John Griffin had reportedly been living a double life.

Outside of his work at the reputable network, which he has been a part of since 2013, Griffin had also been using Google Hangouts and Kik to communicate with parents of underage girls.

John Griffin faces multiple charges

Following his arrest on Friday, it was revealed that Griffin also made some offensive comments regarding women on the applications. One of his comments claimed that women should be submissive to men and that a woman is a woman regardless of her age.

The indictment revealed that Griffin urged the parents of underage girls to allow him to trail their children to be sexually submissive. He also met up with the moms and their daughters in his home in Vermont. While there, he instructed the young girl to engage in sexual activities with him.

Last year, he reportedly proposed a virtual training session where he asked a mom and her teenage daughter to strip naked while they were on a video call.

Two months later, he asked the mom of another teenager to visit him at home so that for sexual training.

If found guilty, Griffin faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the three charges he's facing. He is expected to appear in court on Dec. 15.

Statements released following John Griffin's arrest

"We take the charges against Mr. Griffin incredibly seriously. We only learned of his arrest this afternoon and have suspended him pending investigation," a spokesperson for CNN said in a statement via MSN.

The FBI also released a statement saying that they are committed to working with the United States Attorney's Office District of Vermont to ensure that Griffin would be held accountable for his actions.

According to CNN, they also vowed to aggressively investigate others who may also be victimizing the most vulnerable individuals in certain communities.

John Griffin's former colleague Chris Cuomo fired

CNN has been dealing with several blows in recent weeks. Before Griffin's arrest, the network also suspended and then fired Chris Cuomo due to his involvement in his brother Andrew Cuomo's sexual harassment case.

According to reports, Chris assisted his older brother in responding to the allegations of sexual abuse from at least 11 of his female staff. Following his firing, it was revealed that Chris also tried to discredit Janice Dean, who was one of Andrew's biggest critics. She slammed the former governor following the death of her husband's parents due to COVID-19.

Melissa DeRosa, who served as Andrew's secretary, publicly lambasted Dean and accused the latter of just being a mere right-wing commentator for Fox News, according to CNBC.

Ironically, Chris and Griffin have ties that go beyond both working in the same network. Griffin shared photos of himself with his former boss on his social media accounts.

He also revealed that he worked with Chris for five years when he served as an anchor on "A New Day," according to New York Post.