Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein, has been quietly transferred to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
Maxwell’s transfer from a federal facility in Tallahassee, Florida, to Federal Prison Camp Bryan comes just one week after she met with Department of Justice (DOJ) Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche amid ongoing controversy over the Trump Administration’s handling of the so-called “Epstein files”.
The Trump Administration has faced sharp criticism from the public, and many of the president’s own supporters, following the release of a July memo from the DOJ denying the existence of a “client list”, ruling Epstein’s death a suicide, and closing the case.
Trump has faced questions over his own relationship with Epstein in recent weeks following a report in the Wall Street Journal in July that claimed the Department of Justice had told the President his name is in the Epstein files, along with many other influential figures—although that is no indication of any wrongdoing.
When asked by reporters about the possibility of a pardon for Maxwell last week, Trump said: “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”
Read more: Who Is Ghislaine Maxwell? The Epstein Associate the Justice Department Is Interviewing
The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed in a Friday statement to TIME that Maxwell has now been moved to the federal prison camp in Bryan, though they did not state the reason for her move.
David O. Markus, Maxwell’s attorney, has not publicly commented on the transfer.
The Bryan facility houses 635 female inmates and is known for holding incarcerated people who are serving non-violent offenses and white-collar crimes, according to the BBC. Other prominent figures have been housed at FPC Bryan include Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Star Jen Shah, who was convicted of wire fraud, and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was found guilty of defrauding investors.
The family of Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein who filed a lawsuit against him and Maxwell for sexual abuse and defamation, respectively, hit out at the move on Friday and accused the Trump Administration of granting Maxwell “preferential treatment.”
“Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency,” the family said.
“The Trump Administration should not credit a word Maxwell says, as the government itself sought charges against Maxwell for being a serial liar. This move smacks of a cover up. The victims deserve better,” they added.
Trump and Epstein were friends for over a decade from the 1980s and were regularly spotted at parties together in the New York social scene.
The President has sought to play down his connection to Epstein over the years. He has said consistently that he broke off his friendship long before any allegations of Epstein’s crimes came to light. This week, he gave more detail about the split when he said he fell out with the financier after Epstein “stole” an employee from the President’s spa at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
“He took people that worked for me. And I told him, ‘Don’t do it anymore.’ And he did it,” Trump said when questioned by reporters on Tuesday.
Trump was then asked if one of these employees was Giuffre, the most well-known of Epstein’s victims, who was 16-years-old when she was working at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, to which he said: “I think she worked at the spa…I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her.”
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, said that she met Epstein and his accomplice Maxwell while working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spa as a teenager.
The Trump Administration’s announcement that there was no Epstein “client list” contradicted numerous statements made by key figures in Trump’s inner circle, including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, before they joined the cabinet.
Renewed interest in Maxwell comes as her attorneys seek an appeal for her conviction, which was filed to the Supreme Court in April. The Justice Department in July asked the Court to reject her appeal, before its recent interviews with Maxwell.
House Oversight Chair James Comer has also subpoenaed Maxwell to testify, but her public testimony seems unlikely as Congress refused to grant her immunity, which her attorneys listed as part of her demands for testifying.
