Epstein Accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell Has Been Moved to the Same Prison as Disgraced Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes By Ben Brachfeld and Elizabeth Rosner 12

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted child sex trafficker and accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein serving a 20-year prison sentence, has been abruptly moved into the custody of a minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas — the same one housing disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

A spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed in an email that Maxwell — who was convicted of procuring minors for Epstein to abuse — was moved to the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan, a minimum-security facility for women in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles northwest of Houston, on July 31.

She had previously been serving her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee in Florida, a low-security prison for men and women. Minimum-security is a more lenient designation than low-security in the BOP system.

Per the BOP website, FPC Bryan is described as a facility with “dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing,” compared to the “double-fenced perimeters” at FCI Tallahassee.

The BOP spokesperson would not confirm the reason Maxwell was moved, but listed various factors that generally inform custody status including “the level of security and supervision the inmate requires, any medical or programming needs, separation, security measures to ensure the individual’s protection, and other considerations, including proximity to the individual’s release residence.”

Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, didn’t immediately return an inquiry seeking comment on why his client had been moved.

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Maxwell is not the first high-profile detainee at FPC Bryan. The facility also houses Holmes, who is serving an 11-and-a-quarter-year sentence for wire fraud related to her phony blood-testing startup Theranos, as well as Jen Shah, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star who is serving a 5-and-a-half-year sentence for wire fraud related to her role in a telemarketing scam.

Maxwell is currently angling for a pardon or commutation from President Donald Trump in exchange for information on associates of Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 in what was controversially ruled a suicide as he faced sex trafficking charges.

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Maxwell spoke with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month, reportedly speaking about 100 ex-associates of Epstein, and has been subpoenaed to testify in front of Congress, though she intends to assert her Fifth Amendment rights unless she gets immunity from prosecution.

She is also trying to get the Supreme Court to throw out her conviction, arguing she is covered by Epstein’s controversial 2008 non-prosecution agreement that required him to register as a sex offender.

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Sigrid McCawley, who represents a number of Epstein’s victims, including the late Virginia Giuffre, called Maxwell’s transfer “beyond troubling.”

“Any action by the government, including the Deputy Attorney General’s meetings last week and now this, that might lead to giving leniency or pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell cannot be tolerated,” McCawley told PEOPLE in a statement. “Ghislaine Maxwell was Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator. She was convicted of committing odious crimes. And now is the time, the day, and the hour for survivors to rise up and use their brave voices to demand that Ghislaine Maxwell remain in prison.”

The news comes as Trump faces substantial scrutiny over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files — and his own long friendship with the convicted child sex offender.

Trump was reportedly told by his own Attorney General that his name appeared in the Epstein files, and has sued the Wall Street Journal for publishing details of a bawdy birthday card he allegedly wrote to Epstein, in which he allegedly says the two share “certain things in common.”

This week, Trump told reporters he and Epstein fell out after the disgraced financier “stole” a then-teenaged Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago club, where she was working as a spa attendant. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, alleged she was trafficked to high-profile individuals like Britain’s Prince Andrew, who settled a lawsuit with her but denied the allegations.

In a statement, Giuffre’s family called Trump’s remarks “shocking” and added: “it makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.