The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee penned a letter to the Department of Justice demanding information about Ghislaine Maxwell’s recent prison transfer and meeting with a top Trump administration official.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said the recent transfer of Maxwell – a convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged accomplice – out of a maximum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, gives ‘the strong appearance’ that the Trump administration ‘is attempting to cover up the full extent of the relationship between President Trump and Mr. Epstein.’
In the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III, Raskin said Maxwell’s new home at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, provides ‘greater freedom for inmates.’ He argued that such an ‘extraordinary transfer’ would typically be ‘categorically off limits to sex offenders.’
‘These actions raise substantial concerns that the administration may now be attempting to tamper with a crucial witness, conceal President Trump’s relationship with convicted sex offenders, and coax Ms. Maxwell into providing false or misleading testimony in order to protect the President,’ Raskin wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘The transfer also appears to violate both DOJ and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policies.’
The letter asked for a cache of documents related to why Maxwell was transferred from Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee to Federal Prison Campe (FPC) Bryan.
Raskin is also seeking a transcript and recording of Maxwell’s recent, hours-long meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Tallahassee prison.
‘These meetings were highly unusual for several reasons. Mr. Blanche, who until ten months ago served as Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer, met with Ms. Maxwell and her attorney with no line prosecutors present. The meeting took place just days after DOJ leadership fired one of the chief career prosecutors on the Epstein matter,’ Raskin wrote, referencing the Justice Department’s firing of Maurene Comey from the Southern District of New York.
Comey – the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey – most recently worked on the prosecution of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. Her other high-profile cases include the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions.
The DOJ confirmed criminal investigations into her father – as well as former CIA Director John Brennan last month.
Reached by Fox News Digital on Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the receipt of Raskin’s letter but declined to comment further.
In his letter to Bondi and Marshall, Raskin further argued that convicted sex offenders would typically be barred from federal prison camps, which provide ‘access to the community,’ and any transfer would require ‘multiple levels of review that would ordinarily take months to complete.’ He said any approval of a transfer ‘typically requires new facts or evidence’ and even so, ‘an inmate would then have to join a months-long waitlist for an opening at a camp.’
‘Ms. Maxwell, however, appears to have short-circuited the entire review process and jumped the queue, receiving a place in Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan within a matter of days,’ Raskin wrote. ‘Neither DOJ nor BOP has provided anything like a satisfactory explanation for providing Ms. Maxwell this uniquely favorable treatment.’
The letter – also signed by all Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee – seeks a list of any administration officials who ‘were aware of, were involved in, or approved’ of the transfer. Raskin also demanded information regarding ‘any possible benefits to Ms. Maxwell, including transfers, changes to conditions of confinement, pardons, commutation, or changes to DOJ positions in ongoing matters.’
Raskin acknowledged that Maxwell was recently subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to testify. To Bondi and Marshall, the congressman said ‘there can be no question that your actions have served to send a clear message to Ms. Maxwell in the lead up to any testimony before Congress and the American public: this Administration can punish or reward her as it sees fit for its own purposes.’
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