Officials at the Bureau of Prisons have instituted a unique system for keeping absolutely every detail about Ghislaine Maxwell secret, a federal prison consultant revealed on the Daily Beast Podcast.
Maxwell was moved to a cushier jail after an order came from “well above their heads,” follwing a visit from Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche, who is now the No. 2 at the Department of Justice.
The notorious partner in crime of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was quietly transferred in August from a Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, to a Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, that is known for its comforts relative to other jails.
Sam Mangel, a former inmate turned prison consultant for high-profile names like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, explained that the BOP is now working overtime to keep every detail about Maxwell out of the news.
Mangel, whose job is to work with high-profile inmates, said he had never seen a coverup operation like this before.
“When they go into a prison. anybody of that type of stature or fame, inmates tend to be very curious. They want to almost live vicariously through them. And many of the staff tend to be very deferential to them because they understand who they are and who their friends might be. In this case with Ms. Maxwell, it is completely different. They were warned, the inmates and the staff were warned prior to her coming in that under no circumstances are they to disclose anything that happens with her or to her or surrounding her during her time at at Bryan.”
And Mangel says that was no idle threat. “In one case, there was one inmate that told somebody—a journalist—something about her. And this young lady was a friend of one of my clients and she had a very short sentence. Keeping in mind, prison phones and email are subject to being monitored. So you know for sure they have an AI system that is just looking for the name Maxwell. And as soon as this other inmate made the statement, she was whisked off that night to Houston Federal Detention Center, which is a maximum security facility. the sentiment is one of walking on ice. They’re afraid, as the staff is afraid, to do anything wrong because they know that in order for her to have gotten there, the strings at the highest possible level."
In the case of Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, the BOP also took the rare step of waiving the public safety factor related to her sex crime conviction to overcome “a very severe restriction” that would have prevented her transfer to a minimum-security prison in Texas from a federal prison in Florida.
“Anything involving a sexual act is the most serious—or one of the most serious—public safety factors someone can have on them, and that specifically precludes an individual from serving their time in a camp,” Mangel told host Joanna Coles.
“I’ve helped thousands of people… They will not waive that public safety factor,” he said of the BOP. “So getting your transfer to a camp is crazy.”
Maxwell, 63, has been staying at a dorm-style facility closer to her family that houses other high-profile criminals, including Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and former The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah. In September, Maxwell was spotted heading to yoga class.
The transfer came after Maxwell sat down for an hours-long interview with Trump-appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, sending the rumor mill into overdrive about a possible deal struck with the administration.
Mangel said BOP Director William Marshall and Deputy Director Joshua Smith, who were appointed by Trump earlier this year, “really tried to clean everything up, get things moving in the proper direction.”
“So it’s my understanding that the directive to move her to a minimum security camp, Bryan, came from well above their heads,” he said.
Mangel also believed safety concerns played a role in Maxwell’s transfer, citing violent offenders jailed at the low-security prison in Tallahassee.
“I truly believe that once she started cooperating, the Bureau of Prisons had to move her,” he said. “It was the only solution for the Bureau of Prisons if their goal was to keep her safe and alive. If they moved her to another low-security [facility], they would have had the same challenges.”
The Justice Department declined to comment. An automatic response from the BOP indicated that it was unavailable for inquiries due to the government shutdown. The Daily Beast also reached out to the White House for comment.
President Donald Trump left the door open to a possible Maxwell pardon—while pretending not to know her—earlier this month.
As for the question of a possible deal struck behind the scenes by Maxwell and the Trump administration, Mangel said he can only speculate.
“I have to imagine that getting her to Bryan was the starting point to getting her out of custody, whether through commutation or pardon. It just seems to me that you don’t move someone to that type of facility with this kind of protection and precautions if you’re not overly concerned about her safety and what she has to say and offer,” Mangel said.
“So my guess, and purely speculation, is that at some point she will receive some form of clemency.”
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