Norm Eisen’s Democracy Defender’s Fund is demanding answers about who at the Department of Justice approved the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender, to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas. The group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking records related to the decision. The request includes any communications from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall III, as first reported by Politico.
What the FOIA request seeks
The group is also requesting documents related to any waiver Maxwell may have required to bypass the Bureau of Prisons’ requirement that a sex offender be held in “at least a low-security facility,” according to Politico.
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Maxwell’s transfer came shortly after she was interviewed for several hours over two days by Blanche in Florida — part of the Trump administration’s move to quell criticism of its handling of the Epstein files. However, the federal government has yet to release transcripts or previously acknowledged recordings from those interviews.
Trump said he was unaware of the move
President Donald Trump said that he had no prior knowledge of the DOJ’s decision to transfer Maxwell to a lower-security facility.
“I didn’t know about it at all,” Trump said on Tuesday when asked by a reporter. “I read about it just like you did.”
Officials moved Maxwell from a prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas. The prison camp is also holding Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and celebrity housewife Jen Shah, according to USA Today.
While Trump denied being briefed, he added that any request by Blanche “would be totally appropriate.” Blanche represented Trump during his 2024 criminal trial in New York.
“It’s not a very uncommon thing,” Trump said about Maxwell’s transfer.
Criticism of Maxwell’s transfer
Critics, however, argue that the move was anything but routine.
“It’s a country club,” former federal prison warden Robert Hood told The Washington Post about the facility. “Inmates, if they have a sex offense, are not going to a place like that, period. It’s truly unheard of.”
Epstein victims speak out
Maxwell, convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking a minor, is now serving her sentence at what has been described as a “posh” facility. This decision has infuriated victims of Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
“President Trump has sent a clear message today: Pedophiles deserve preferential treatment and their victims do not matter,” said the siblings of Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two charges related to prostitution in Florida. In 2019, federal authorities arrested him on charges of sex trafficking. He died in a prison cell later that year. A medical examiner has ruled his death a suicide.
