Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell moved from Florida to Texas

UPI

3 days ago

Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was moved Friday from Tallahassee, Fla., to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas. File Handout Photo by Rick Bajornas/UN
Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from her prison in Tallahassee, Fla., to a low-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, though no reason has been given.
Maxwell, 63, has served five of her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. She was the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex trafficker of underage girls.
The prison she was moved from is a low-security facility, and her destination is a minimum security one.
Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Marcus, declined to elaborate, saying, "We can confirm that she was moved but we have no comment."
Maxwell, with her attorney, recently met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two days. There have been growing calls from Democrats and Republicans for President Donald Trump to release files on the Epstein case and worry that he may issue her a pardon, though he hasn't said that he would.
Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who doesn't represent Maxwell, suggested that she could be threatened, hurt or injured in the Tallahassee prison, especially if she continues to cooperate with the Justice Department. The Tallahassee prison houses gang members and violent offenders.
"Given her situation, [the move is] the best for her," Mangel told CNN.
Josh Lepird, vice president for the region of the officers' union that includes Bryan, Texas, said the transfer did not seem unusual to him, even for a high-profile prisoner.
"The only unusual thing is that you typically only go to a camp if you have just a couple years left," Lepird told the Houston Chronicle. "But if someone is a cooperating witness, they can request a lower security level."
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, spokesperson Dini von Mueffling told USA Today.
The family has expressed worry that Trump and some inside the 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. Those men have not been publicly identified.
"The family is scrambling right now to figure out what's going on," von Mueffling said. "They don't understand why this is happening."
Other inmates in the camp include Jen Shah, from the TV show The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.