Ghislaine Maxwell transferred to minimum-security prison camp in Texas
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Ghislaine Maxwell transferred to minimum-security prison camp in Texas
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. She had been held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, until her transfer to the prison camp in Texas. Maxwell’s case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department’s statement last month saying it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
WATCH: Why the DOJ met with Ghislaine Maxwell amid backlash over Trump’s Epstein ties
The federal Bureau of Prisons said Friday that Maxwell had been transferred to Bryan, Texas, but did not explain the circumstances. Her attorney confirmed the move but also declined to discuss the reasons for it.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She had been held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, until her transfer to the prison camp in Texas, where other inmates include Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Jen Shah of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”
Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates the Bureau of Prisons considers to be the lowest security risk. Some don’t even have fences.
The prison camps were originally designed with low security to make operations easier and to allow inmates tasked with performing work at the prison, like landscaping and maintenance, to avoid repeatedly checking in and out of a main prison facility.
Maxwell’s case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department’s statement last month saying that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
Since then, administration officials have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting from courts the unsealing of grand jury transcripts.
Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse over two days last week by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The House Oversight Committee has separately said that it wants to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said this week that she would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to give her immunity from prosecution for anything she said.
Associated Press Writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
Ghislaine Maxwell moved to lower-security prison in Texas
Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from a detention facility in Florida to a lower security prison in Texas, her lawyer said Friday. Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking charges, had been serving her 20-year sentence at a low-security prison in Tallahassee. Attorney David Oscar Markus said she was moved to the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, about 95 miles northwest of Houston. He did not give a reason for the transfer, and the Justice Department declined to comment. The family of Virginia Giuffre — who was among Jeffrey Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers and who died by suicide this year — said in a statement that the transfer reflected “the justice system failing victims right before our eyes.” The 63-year-old Maxwell has also been subpoenaed to give a deposition to Congress on Aug. 11.
Bryan is among the facilities with the lowest-level of security in the federal system, with limited or no perimeter fencing, dormitory-style housing and a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio. Another high-profile inmate housed there is Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the Silicon Valley blood-testing company Theranos, who was sentenced to serve 11-years in prison for wire fraud and conspiracy.
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The family of Virginia Giuffre — who was among Jeffrey Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers and who died by suicide this year — said in a statement that Maxwell’s transfer to the federal prison camp reflected “the justice system failing victims right before our eyes.”
“It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received,” said the statement, also signed by other women who said they were victims of Epstein and Maxwell. “Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency. Yet, without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas.”
Maxwell’s transfer, which was first reported by The New York Sun, came a week after Maxwell was interviewed over two days in Tallahassee by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche amid the persistent struggle by President Donald Trump’s administration to contain the uproar over its decision to release no further information from the FBI’s Epstein files.
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Epstein was indicted on sex trafficking and other charges in 2019 but died while awaiting trial in Manhattan, in what has been ruled a suicide. Members of President Donald Trump’s Republican base have led a clamor for the full release of the files and some believe Maxwell has information that could implicate members of the disgraced financier’s circle of rich and powerful friends.
Blanche, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump, said at the time that he asked Maxwell about “100 different people” and that she “answered every single question” truthfully and to the best of her ability. He has said that he would release information about their interview at an appropriate time.
Markus has said that Maxwell did not receive a fair trial when she was convicted for helping Epstein groom, traffic and abuse dozens of underage girls. While appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the conviction, they have also been using the renewed attention on the Epstein case to seek clemency from the president.
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Trump has been noncommittal on that point, telling reporters this week he is “allowed to give her a pardon” but “nobody’s asked me about it.”
The 63-year-old Maxwell has also been subpoenaed to give a deposition to Congress on Aug. 11. She has asked for immunity to testify, a request the congressional committee overseeing her testimony quickly rejected.
Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky), who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said Friday that he would be willing to delay Maxwell’s testimony until after the Supreme Court rules on her petition, which is expected in late September.