Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was moved on Friday from a Florida prison known for its poor conditions to a lower-security prison in Texas, giving the former Jeffrey Epstein associate cushier accommodations to serve out her 20-year federal prison sentence.
The move comes after Maxwell met last week with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was previously President Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney. Blanche interviewed Maxwell for two days to see if she had information that could incriminate third parties in Epstein’s alleged crimes. Epstein was accused of sex-trafficking minors but died by suicide in 2019, before his trial began.
The interview was meant to satiate right-wing critics angry that Trump’s administration has refused to release more documents related to Epstein. But that scandal has continued to roil the right.
Maxwell was moved to Federal Prison Camp Bryan, a minimum-security facility. Such prisons have “dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. And the fact that she’s now being given cushier prison accommodations, seemingly in exchange for helping Trump tamp down criticism of his handling of the Epstein files, could spike further backlash.
Indeed, the family of Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein accuser who died by suicide in April, slammed Maxwell’s move. In a statement to CNN, they said:
It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received. 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. This is the justice system failing victims right before our eyes. The American public should be enraged by the preferential treatment being given to a pedophile and a criminally charged child sex offender. The Trump administration should not credit a word Maxwell says, as the government itself sought charges against Maxwell for being a serial liar. This move smacks of a cover up. The victims deserve better.
Maxwell is serving 20 years in federal prison for her role in helping Epstein abuse numerous underage girls. After she agreed to the Trump administration’s request for an interview, she is now pushing for Trump to pardon her.
It’s unclear what Maxwell told the DOJ in the two-day-long interview. However, she had ample reason to lie and tell the Trump administration what it wanted to hear, since it could earn her a pardon.
Trump has not ruled out such a pardon, saying multiple times that he is “allowed to do it.”
This is not the only new scandal related to the Epstein brouhaha.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the FBI redacted Trump’s name from the Epstein files.
From Bloomberg’s report:
While reviewing the Epstein files, FBI personnel identified numerous references to Trump in the documents, the people familiar with the matter told me. Dozens of other high-profile public figures also appeared, the people said. (The appearance of Trump’s name or others in the Epstein files is not evidence of a crime or even a suggestion of wrongdoing.)
In preparation for potential public release, the documents then went to a unit of FOIA officers who applied redactions in accordance with the nine exemptions. The people familiar with the matter said that Trump’s name, along with other high-profile individuals, was blacked out because he was a private citizen when the federal investigation of Epstein was launched in 2006.
Democrats are lambasting Trump over the news.
“The Trump-Epstein Cover-up,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania, wrote in a post on X, referencing the FBI’s redaction of Trump’s name from the files.