Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General’s office launch an investigation into the quiet transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell from a correctional facility in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.
“We request that you immediately investigate the circumstances of Maxwell’s transfer. It is critical to address concerns that Maxwell was rewarded with a transfer in exchange for testimony manufactured to exonerate President Trump and other high-profile associates of Epstein,” Garcia and all 18 other Democrats on the panel said Wednesday in a 5-page letter to DOJ’s Acting Inspector General William Blier.
The Hill has reached out to the DOJ’s Inspector General’s office for comment.
Maxwell, a former longtime associate of deceased sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, was transferred earlier this summer from a federal prison in Florida to a lower security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
The move took place after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke with Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, over the course of two days in Tallahassee, Fla. The DOJ released the audio and transcripts of Blanche’s interviews with Maxwell in late August.
“The American people need clarity as to why Maxwell was transferred in contravention of BOP guidelines, and why Maxwell was transferred only after sitting for an interview with DAG Blanche,” the House Democrats wrote in the letter. “The irregular transfer raises suspicions that she received preferential treatment in exchange for her favorable testimony and is profoundly insulting and harmful to Maxwell’s victims.”
Garcia asked the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, William K. Marshall III, in early August to conduct oversight of Maxwell’s transfer and provide the committee with more information about the move. The committee’s ranking members said in the Wednesday letter that so far Marshall has not provided “any of the requested information.”
The letter comes as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the matter related to Epstein has continued. The DOJ has sent over thousands of pages of documents to the panel, but the Democrats on the committee have said that most of the materials are already publicly available.
At the same time, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have pushed to pass their bill that would require the DOJ to release documents related to Epstein.
House Republicans’ leadership is urging their members not to sign Massie’s petition, which he filed on Tuesday, and instead show support for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee probe into Epstein.
The House committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has subpoenaed former President Clinton and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify regarding the Epstein probe. Comer has also subpoenaed the Epstein estate for materials.
