Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has quietly been moved from a federal prison in Florida to one in Texas, a federal Bureau of Prisons official confirmed Aug, 1.
The transfer comes as Maxwell’s attorneys are pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn her conviction while also seeking a pardon or commutation for her from President Donald Trump in exchange for her cooperation in the Epstein investigation and broader sex trafficking issues.
Maxwell spent two days last week talking to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche – Trump’s former personal defense lawyer – at a courthouse near the Tallahassee prison where she was serving a 20-year prison sentence for Epstein-related sex trafficking.
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“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 Inmate Locator official Benjamin O’Cone said in an email to USA TODAY. The news was first reported by the New York Sun newspaper.
Maxwell attorney David Oscar Markus also confirmed to USA TODAY that, “Ghislaine was moved to Bryan Texas but we have no other comment” as to why the transfer was made and who requested it.
The move sparked concern from the family of one of Maxwell’s most vocal accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, that the transfer is part of an undisclosed deal between the Justice Department and the Trump administration. In recent days, they have expressed worry that Trump and presidential-appointed leaders inside DOJ are trying to silence Maxwell without receiving any input from potentially hundreds of accusers who say she and Epstein sexually abused them and forced them to have sex with prominent men whom authorities have not been publicly identified.
“The family is scrambling right now to figure out what’s going on,” spokeswoman Dini von Mueffling told USA TODAY. “They don’t understand why this is happening.”
More: How Trump and ‘terrific guy’ Jeffrey Epstein’s party boy friendship ended badly
The prison swap is the latest development in the growing controversy over Trump’s relationship with Maxwell and Epstein, who died by suicide while in custody awaiting trial in 2019. On July 30, Giuffre’s surviving siblings and their spouses issued a lengthy statement calling for Maxwell to remain in prison and urging the Trump administration to release all documents in the case that are in the Justice Department’s possession.
Giuffre’s family especially demanded answers about why Trump said in recent remarks that Epstein “stole” Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago spa more than 20 years ago. Trump and Epstein were friends for more than a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago,” the family said of Giuffre, who died by suicide in April.
“It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey ‘likes women on the younger side … no doubt about it,’” the family’s statement added. “We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this.”
Trump made the comment July 30, telling reporters Epstein “stole her” while Giuffre was working as a spa attendant, and that he subsequently banned Epstein from his Palm Beach residence and club after he tried to poach additional employees.
“I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people,” Trump said of Giuffre. “He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever.”
Giuffre had long insisted that Maxwell − Epstein’s longtime associate and former girlfriend – was the one who met her at the club and recruited her to serve as a masseuse for Epstein. That arrangement ultimately led to Epstein sexually abusing her and Maxwell trafficking Giuffre to have sex with other men, she said.
In their lengthy statement, the Giuffre family rejected Trump’s characterization, saying she was “stolen” by Maxwell, not Epstein.
“We would like to clarify that it was convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell who targeted and preyed upon our then 16-year-old sister, Virginia, from Mar-a-Lago, where she was working in 2000, several years before Epstein and President Trump had their falling out,” the family said.
In a statement to USA TODAY, the White House said no leniency is being given or discussed, and Trump himself has said he’s not thinking about clemency for Maxwell at this time.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell quietly moved out of Fla. prison
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