Epstein victims claim ‘cover up' as accomplice moved to low security prison

Al Jazeera

2 days ago

Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice in the abuse of underage girls by high-society sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been moved to a minimum security facility in Texas, the United States Bureau of Prisons said, triggering an angry reaction from some of the pair's victims.
Maxwell was moved from the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee – a low-security prison in Florida – to the minimum security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, the Bureau of Prisons said on Friday.
'We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp [FPC] Bryan in Bryan, Texas,' a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said, without providing an explanation for the transfer.
Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Markus, also confirmed the move but declined to discuss the reasons for the transfer.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein – a one-time friend to the powerful and influential in the US – and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her crimes.
Two women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell, and the family of another accuser who recently took her own life, condemned Maxwell's surprise prison transfer.
'It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received,' Annie and Maria Farmer and the family of Virginia Giuffre said in a statement.
'Without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas,' the victims said.
'Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency,' they said.
'This move smacks of a cover-up. The victims deserve better,' they added.
'Government cover-up in real time'
The Bryan prison camp in Texas is a minimum security institution, the lowest of five security levels in the US federal prison system. Such facilities have limited or no perimeter fencing, whereas low security facilities, such as FCI Tallahassee, have double-fenced perimeters and higher staff-to-inmate ratios than prison camps, according to the bureau.
Maxwell's move comes after Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche — President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer – interviewed Maxwell for two days at a Florida courthouse last week in a highly unusual meeting between a convicted felon and a high-ranking Department of Justice official.
Blanche has declined so far to say what was discussed, but Maxwell's lawyer, Markus, said she answered every question she was asked.
Maxwell has reportedly offered to testify before Congress about Epstein if given immunity and has also reportedly been seeking a pardon from the US president, who was once a close friend of Epstein, who took his own life in prison in 2019.
Tim Hogan, a senior Democratic National Committee adviser, denounced what he alleged was a 'government cover-up in real time'.
'Donald Trump's FBI, run by loyalist Kash Patel, redacted Trump's name from the Epstein files – which have still not been released,' Hogan said.
'While Trump and his administration try to cover up the heinous crimes included in those files, they're simultaneously doing favours for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell,' Hogan said.
MAGA base up in arms
Trump has faced weeks of mounting demands from Democrats and many of his conspiracy-minded supporters to be more transparent about the Epstein case after the Justice Department said last month that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the investigation into the high-profile sex trafficker.
Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) base has also been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said recently that Epstein had not blackmailed any prominent figures, and that he did not keep a 'client list'.
Trump also ignited further furore this week when he told reporters he fell out with Epstein after the sex offender 'stole' female employees from a spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
One of those employees was Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave and took her own life at her home in Australia in April.
Giuffre's family issued a statement this week appealing to Trump not to consider pardoning Maxwell, who they called a 'monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life'.
In an interview on Friday night, Trump said that nobody had asked him to grant clemency to Maxwell, but he 'had a right to do it'.
'I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it,' Trump said in an interview.