The confidante of Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of luring underage girls for sexual abuse.
By Sarah Bahari
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
John Minchillo / AP
Not long after she was transferred to a Texas prison, Ghislaine Maxwell raved about the pristine conditions at her new home.
In emails to friends and family, Maxwell said the facility in Bryan, about 175 miles south of Dallas, was far better than her last address at a Tallahassee, Fla., prison. In particular, she noted the cleanliness, improved food and responsive staff.
“I feel like I have dropped through Alice in Wonderland’s looking glass” said Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for procuring underage girls for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “I am much much happier here and more importantly safe. So yes everyone can (breathe) a sigh.”
Documents and information obtained by the House Judiciary Committee describe preferential treatment Maxwell has received at the minimal-security prison camp for women since she arrived in August.
Perks include customized meals delivered directly to her cell, late-night workouts, access to staff-only areas and special accommodations to meet with visitors, according to a letter sent to President Donald Trump by U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. On one occasion, she was granted time to play with a puppy training to become a service dog.
Inmates said they were told by prison officials they could be transferred to a less desirable prison for even speaking to Maxwell, the letter says. Some inmates said their families were not allowed to visit because it had closed down for Maxwell’s visits.
“This top-flight luxury service has reached such a point of absurdity that one of the top officials at the prison has complained that he is ‘sick of having to be Maxwell’s bitch,’” wrote Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. ”Needless to say, these luxuries and amenities have not been afforded to any other inmates and mark Ms. Maxwell more as a guest at a Trump hotel than a federal prisoner and child sex offender.”
Citing an unnamed whistleblower, Raskin said Maxwell plans to file a commutation application with the Trump administration.
In an email Thursday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said it could not comment on individual cases but that staff is required to treat all inmates equitably. Allegations of misconduct, including any suggestion of preferential treatment, are investigated through the Office of Internal Affairs and, when appropriate, the Department of Justice.
“The Bureau of Prisons is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, impartiality, and professionalism in the operation of its facilities,” the agency said. “Any deviation from this standard undermines public trust and the fair administration of justice.”
These allegations are not the only disclosure that has rocked the case. On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails indicating Trump knew more about the sex trafficking than he previously acknowledged.
In a 2011 email, the disgraced financier wrote that Donald Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a victim of sex trafficking and said in a separate message years later that Trump “knew about the girls.”
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.
Uma Sanghvi / Palm Beach Post
Prosecutors have said Maxwell was instrumental in helping Epstein abuse young girls, but her lawyers have maintained she was wrongly prosecuted and denied a fair trial, and have floated the idea of a pardon from Trump. They have also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up her case.
In July, Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that she never saw any sexually inappropriate interactions involving Trump. A couple of days after that interview, she was transferred to the Bryan prison.
Epstein’s survivors and some lawmakers criticized the transfer to the Bryan prison, which is set on 37 acres near residential neighborhoods. The prison — nicknamed “Club Fed” — houses about 650 women, including Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Jen Shah of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
In his letter to Trump, Raskin said federal officers at the prison camp have been waiting on Maxwell “hand and foot,” and that the prison warden has “heaped favorable concierge-style treatment” on Maxwell, citing a whistleblower.
Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates the Bureau of Prisons considers to be the lowest security risk. Prison camps were originally designed with low security to make operations easier and to allow inmates tasked with performing work at the prison, like landscaping and maintenance, to avoid repeatedly checking in and out of a main prison facility.
Sex offenders are not typically allowed to serve time at minimum-security prison camps.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By Sarah Bahari
Sarah Bahari is a trending news reporter. She previously worked as a writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where she covered a bit of everything. She is a graduate of Kansas State University.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
