Ghislaine Maxwell moved to federal prison camp in Texas

By Kaitlan Collins, Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who had been serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida, has been moved to a lower-security federal prison camp in Texas.
“We can confirm, Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas,” BOP spokesperson Donald Murphy said in a statement to CNN.
Maxwell’s transfer to a minimum-security prison is relatively uncommon, as those convicted of sex offenses are almost always deemed too high of a risk to public safety. That means that those inmates are at best assigned to a low-security prison.
Maxwell, who was sentenced in 2022 for carrying out a years-long scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls, has continued to appeal her conviction, including the Supreme Court.
The move comes a week after Maxwell met in private with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee. Details of that meeting have not been made public, though her lawyer has said that Maxwell “honestly answered every question that Mr. Blanche asked.”
Murphy declined to give any explanation for Maxwell’s move. The Justice Department has not responded to questions from CNN.
Her prosecution, along with Epstein’s, has long been a focal point for those who believe that powerful people are covering for each other’s crimes, a notion that has again spiked in the last month after the Justice Department declined to make public additional evidence in the Epstein investigation or prosecution.
Maxwell has publicly levied that attention to try to work with the government in several respects. Her meetings with Blanche lasted two full days. She has also offered to testify before Congress if major conditions were met, including immunity and receiving the questions beforehand. Those conditions, however, have been rejected.
Least-restrictive federal prison facility
A minimum-security prison camp, like in Bryan, is the least-restrictive type of facility among federal prisons, housing inmates considered to be low-risk, non-violent and unlikely to escape. Camps have very little or no fencing containing the inmates, and inside they are able to move relatively freely.
Other inmates in the camp for women include Jen Shah, who was on the TV show “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” and Elizabeth Holmes, formerly of the blood-testing company Theranos.
For an inmate like Maxwell to be transferred into a minimum-security prison, a top official inside of the Bureau of Prisons would need to conclude that her risk to public safety has lowered based off recommendations from prison staff or good behavior. That official, the administrator of the Designation and Sentence Computation Center, makes those determinations, according to the BOP.
The agency declined to explain the specifics of how Maxwell’s reassignment was handled.
Maxwell’s new facility, a federal prison camp, has limited perimeter fencing, a low staff-to-inmate ratio, and is “work- and program-oriented,” according to the BOP website.
Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who doesn’t represent Maxwell, suggested that she could run the risk of being threatened, hurt or injured in Tallahassee, especially if she continues to cooperate with the Justice Department, because the Tallahassee prison houses gang members and violent offenders.
“Given her situation, it’s the best for her,” Mangel told CNN.
But family members of Virginia Giuffre — one of the women who accused Epstein of sex trafficking and who died by suicide earlier this year — and other accusers of Epstein and Maxwell reacted to the news with “horror and outrage,” saying that it “smacks of a cover up.”
They accused President Donald Trump of sending a message that “pedophiles deserve preferential treatment and their victims do not matter.”
“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,” wrote accusers Maria Farmer and Annie Farmer, as well as Giuffre family members Sky and Amanda Roberts and Lanette and Danny Wilson.
“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,” they added.
Maxwell has previously sought more comfortable conditions
Federal prosecutors leading up to her sentencing hearing argued Maxwell should receive no leniency.
Maxwell also has repeatedly tried to receive more comfortable conditions during the time she’s been detained. Prior to her sentencing, Maxwell had complained about being held in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where she had more than a dozen hours a day outside of a cell and had access to a phone, TV, computers and a shower.
She had complained, however, about being isolated while in detention and believing she may face a death threat from another inmate.
Prosecutors noted to the judge in her case that she repeatedly complained to the Bureau of Prisons about physical abuse, but the agency at the time “concluded that they are unfounded,” according to a filing in her case.
“It apparently suits her to spread horror stories about her experiences in jail to the press in an attempt to garner public sympathy,” prosecutors wrote at the time in court. “Until July 2020, the defendant spent her entire life living in extraordinary luxury … It is no wonder, then, that she found jail jarring.”
In handing down her 20-year sentence, the judge initially designated her to go to a low-security prison and not a camp.
CNN’s Olivia Cruser contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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