Convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has been quietly transferred to a minimum-security federal prison camp after the Bureau of Prisons waived a rule meant to keep sex offenders in higher-security facilities.
Maxwell, the longtime associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been serving a 20-year sentence since her December 2021 conviction for grooming and trafficking underage girls for Epstein to abuse. For the past three years, she’s been housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida. But last week, she was moved to a lower-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas — a facility closer to her family.
The move was unusual, to say the least. According to NBC News, federal policy normally requires convicted sex offenders to be placed at least in a low-level security prison. Maxwell got a waiver to bypass that rule, giving her access to a more relaxed environment. Federal prison camps offer dorm-like housing and far fewer restrictions than traditional prisons.
A prison consultant told MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian that he had “never seen this done before for a sex offender.” The Bureau of Prisons confirmed Maxwell’s transfer but has not answered questions about the waiver. Maxwell’s attorney has also not commented.
Her transfer follows reported meetings with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, where she allegedly discussed her connections to Epstein. That publicity reportedly put her in danger. Sources told the Daily Mail that other inmates labeled Maxwell a “snitch” after learning she’d spoken to the Justice Department, and that credible threats were made against her life.
FCI Tallahassee, where she’d been housed, has a troubled history. Several guards there have been convicted of sexually assaulting inmates. Maxwell had also made enemies by reporting other prisoners for attempting to blackmail her, according to the Mail.
Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown, whose 2018 reporting reignited the Epstein case, told The Daily Beast podcast she expected Maxwell to be moved for her safety. “She wouldn’t necessarily be safe anywhere,” Brown said, adding, “It is so easy to cover up a crime in jail. The cameras are broken, guards fall asleep—they are, for the most part, very corrupt.”
By contrast, the Bryan, Texas, prison is described as “a professionally run prison camp with a great warden, working cameras everywhere, and properly trained staff.” The facility is also home to high-profile inmates like Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah. “There is a different class of people at Bryan, so she is less likely to be attacked,” one source told the Mail.
The families of Epstein’s victims have condemned Maxwell’s transfer, calling it “a cover-up.” Meanwhile, Maxwell is still fighting her conviction, arguing that a 2007 plea deal between Epstein and federal prosecutors — promised not to charge several unnamed co-conspirators — should have applied to her as well, Reuters reported.
She has reportedly sought a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, who has not ruled it out, even as speculation swirls about his own alleged connections to Epstein.