Days After Pleading With Trump For A Pardon, Ghislaine Maxwell Was Suddenly Moved To A Minimum-Security Prison In Texas

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The Bureau of Prisons has transferred Ghislaine Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas.

The transfer happened as Maxwell, an accomplice of the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, seeks a deal with a Trump administration eager to tamp down a furor over its refusal to release its files on Epstein. 

Maxwell attorney David Markus confirmed the move to HuffPost but declined to comment any further. Earlier this week, Markus wrote in a letter to members of Congress seeking Maxwell’s testimony that she’d be happy to speak in exchange for a pardon or commutation from President Donald Trump. 

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls for sexual exploitation by Epstein, Maxwell, and others. Epstein died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 shortly after he’d been indicted. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier this year she had an Epstein “client list” on her desk and that the files would soon be released, but last month the Justice Department said it would release no further information about the case. Epstein’s life and death have been the subject of rampant speculation, and the government’s reversal prompted a furious backlash from some of Trump’s strongest supporters outside of government. Trump’s name is reportedly mentioned in the files. 

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Trump was friends with Epstein for years, and the two were repeatedly photographed together. He said this week their relationship soured after Epstein and Maxwell “stole” young women from his Mar-a-Lago club. When reporters asked if he was referring to Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most outspoken victims, Trump said yes.

Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, has said she was hired away from Mar-a-Lago in 2000, when she was 16, and that she was ordered by Maxwell and Epstein to have sex with men by telling her to give them massages. 

Giuffre’s family sharply criticized her transfer to a more lenient facility in a statement to CNN. 

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency,” the family said. “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 White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The prison camp where Maxwell was sent, FPC Bryan, is classified as a “minimum security” camp for women. Her previous facility, FCI Tallahassee, houses both men and women and is classified as “low security.”

While the differentiation seems subtle, the differences between a minimum and low security facility are significant.

The BOP describes minimum facility institutions, like the one Maxwell has been transferred to, as having “dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing.”

By contrast, a low security facility has double-fenced perimeters, cubicle housing, and a higher staff ratio.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.