Convicted intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was moved on Friday from a Florida jail recognized for its poor circumstances to a lower-security jail in Texas, giving the previous Jeffrey Epstein affiliate cushier lodging to serve out her 20-year federal jail sentence.
The transfer comes after Maxwell met final week with Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche, who was beforehand President Donald Trump’s felony protection legal professional. Blanche interviewed Maxwell for 2 days to see if she had info that would incriminate third events in Epstein’s alleged crimes. Epstein was accused of sex-trafficking minors however died by suicide in 2019, earlier than his trial started.
On July 17, activists in London put up a poster displaying President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
The interview was meant to satiate right-wing critics indignant that Trump’s administration has refused to launch extra paperwork associated to Epstein. However that scandal has continued to roil the precise.
Maxwell was moved to Federal Jail Camp Bryan, a minimum-security facility. Such prisons have “dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing,” in line with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. And the truth that she’s now being given cushier jail lodging, seemingly in trade for serving to Trump tamp down criticism of his dealing with of the Epstein recordsdata, may spike additional backlash.
Certainly, the household of Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein accuser who died by suicide in April, slammed Maxwell’s transfer. In an announcement to CNN, they mentioned:
It’s with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential remedy convicted intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has obtained. Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who bodily assaulted minor youngsters on a number of events, and he or she ought to by no means be proven any leniency. But, with none notification to the Maxwell victims, the federal government in a single day has moved Maxwell to a minimal safety luxurious jail in Texas. That is the justice system failing victims proper earlier than our eyes. The American public needs to be enraged by the preferential remedy being given to a pedophile and a criminally charged little one intercourse offender. The Trump administration shouldn’t credit score a phrase Maxwell says, as the federal government itself sought expenses towards Maxwell for being a serial liar. This transfer smacks of a canopy up. The victims deserve higher.
Maxwell is serving 20 years in federal jail for her function in serving to Epstein abuse quite a few underage women. After she agreed to the Trump administration’s request for an interview, she is now pushing for Trump to pardon her.
It is unclear what Maxwell informed the DOJ within the two-day-long interview. Nonetheless, she had ample purpose to lie and inform the Trump administration what it needed to listen to, because it may earn her a pardon.
Trump has not dominated out such a pardon, saying a number of instances that he’s “allowed to do it.”
This isn’t the one new scandal associated to the Epstein brouhaha.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the FBI redacted Trump’s identify from the Epstein recordsdata.
From Bloomberg’s report:
Whereas reviewing the Epstein recordsdata, FBI personnel recognized quite a few references to Trump within the paperwork, the folks accustomed to the matter informed me. Dozens of different high-profile public figures additionally appeared, the folks mentioned. (The looks of Trump’s identify or others within the Epstein recordsdata is just not proof of against the law or perhaps a suggestion of wrongdoing.)
In preparation for potential public launch, the paperwork then went to a unit of FOIA officers who utilized redactions in accordance with the 9 exemptions. The folks accustomed to the matter mentioned that Trump’s identify, together with different high-profile people, was blacked out as a result of he was a non-public citizen when the federal investigation of Epstein was launched in 2006.
“The Trump-Epstein Cover-up,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania, wrote in a put up on X, referencing the FBI’s redaction of Trump’s identify from the recordsdata.