WASHINGTON — Lesley Groff, a longtime personal assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, claimed she had a “strictly business” relationship with the registered sex offender — despite scheduling “daily” massages for him with young women, according to lawmakers and a source familiar with her interview on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

Groff seemed visibly emotional as she entered the Oversight hearing room with lawmakers and staff, propped up on either side by a man and a woman who were walking with her — and later noted in the interview that the “scarlet letter” she bears to this day is her links to the 2008 plea agreement that kept Epstein from being federally prosecuted, a source said.

The source familiar with Groff’s interview told The Post that she worked for Epstein from 2001 until resigning after his arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019, but saw their relationship as being “strictly business” for a man she had believed to be a wealth manager for Victoria’s Secret owner Lex Wexner, the Rothschilds and others.

Groff said that she “never had a romantic or sexual relationship” with the financier and knew about his “daily massage” schedule — but not about the years of abuse involving women and had never met any of them in person despite scheduling the appointments at Epstein’s Manhattan penthouse, according to the source.

“There are women who say she knew,” countered Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.). “There’s been some litigation around that point.”

“There is a record of her making sure that that Mr. Epstein was in compliance with the limitations and restrictions that were placed on him as a registered sex offender,” Lynch said. “There seemed to be much, much more vagueness in terms of her awareness of what Mr. Epstein had done previously to these young girls.”

The longtime assistant claimed she also believed Epstein when he alleged he had been “blackmailed” over charges for soliciting sex from a minor in 2006, the source added.

The House Oversight Committee is conducting its 14th interview as part of its Epstein investigation. Groff, who had evaded civil charges and denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes in the past, was called in as part of a probe into the Department of Justice’s handling of its cases against the deceased financier and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

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Many of the emails released by the DOJ following the passage of a law compelling the disclosures show Groff arranging meetings for Epstein with wealthy and prominent business leaders and politicians.

Groff, for example, invited now-Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his family to Epstein’s island of Little St. James for a lunch in 2012, per emails.

Lynch confirmed that she had also visited the island but stayed mainly in New York City when working for Epstein over nearly two decades.

“The more evidence I see, the more people we interview — It’s apparent the government did not do a good job investigating Epstein and Maxwell and their crimes,” Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters.

“We are trying to make up for lost time. I think the interviews that we’ve done have been very productive,” he added. “Hopefully we’ll get the truth to the American people.”

The Oversight Committee has already asked that two individuals — former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and French celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai — be investigated by the DOJ after ex-Epstein “lieutenant” Sarah Kellen accused both of sexual misconduct in a recent interview with the panel.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said it was “really important for us to talk to someone that did Epstein’s schedule” ahead of Groff’s interview.

“It’s also important that he described her as someone that was very close,” he noted.