Topline
Jeffrey Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred to a minimum-security prison in Texas from a prison in Florida after she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last week and reportedly answered “every single question.”
Ghislaine Maxwell on Oct. 18, 2016 in New York City.
Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Key Facts
The US Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Forbes Friday that Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking over her role in the exploitation and abuse of teenage girls, is now in custody at the Federal Prison Camp Bryan, central Texas.
The facility is a minimum-security prison for women and also houses Theranos founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and former “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah, convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in 2023.
Maxwell was previously held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, a low-security prison for female inmates.
Maxwell was interviewed at her Florida facility over two days last week by Blanche, second in command at the Justice Department, and one of Trump’s former lawyers, where her attorney said she was asked about 100 different people during the interview.
Blanche on Thursday said the DOJ would be sharing more about what it learned during the interviews with Maxwell “at the appropriate time.”
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Crucial Quote
“She answered questions about everybody, and she didn’t hold anything back,” Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said. “They asked about every single, every possible thing you could imagine. Everything.”
Key Background
The interviews with Maxwell came as critics on both sides of the aisle put increasing pressure on the Trump administration to make public the entirety of its investigation against convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was facing charges of sex trafficking minors when he died in his federal jail cell. Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously promised the DOJ would be releasing an “Epstein client list” revealing his associates, but in early July said such a list did not exist and that the government would not be making any more of its investigative files on Epstein available to the public. The Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi told Trump his name was in the Epstein files months before the DOJ decided to keep them under wraps. The White House pushed back, calling it a “fake news story.” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., last month sponsored an amendment in the House Rules Committee that could have forced Congress to vote on whether to release the documents, but some Republicans blocked the measure. Trump then told Bondi to release grand jury documents related to Epstein, and she said she would ask the court to unseal the filings. A federal judge in Florida denied the request. Trump’s directive to release the grand jury documents came after the Wall Street Journal reported he sent Epstein a suggestive letter for his 50th birthday in 2003. The card allegedly included a drawing of a naked woman and a message telling Epstein, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump has denied sending the note, but did share a close relationship with Epstein decades ago. Trump and Epstein were known to run in the same social circles, the president told New York Magazine in 2002 that the pair shared an appreciation for beautiful women and Trump once called Epstein a “terrific guy.” In 2019, when Epstein was arrested, Trump told reporters he was “not a fan” and said he hadn’t spoken to Epstein in 15 years.
Tangent
Bloomberg on Friday reported that the FBI’s public records team redacted Trump’s name—and those of other prominent public figures—from documents related to Epstein before ultimately deciding not to release them. While reviewing the Epstein files, FBI personnel reportedly redacted his name because he was a private citizen when the federal investigation of Epstein began in 2006. The FBI has not responded to Forbes’ request for comment on the report.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/08/01/ghislaine-maxwell-moved-to-minimum-security-facility-after-cooperating-with-doj/