From left, Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 12, 2000.
Davidoff Studios Photography | Archive Photos | Getty Images
Two sexual abuse victims of Jeffrey Epstein and the family of late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre on Friday blasted President Donald Trump after learning that Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell had been transferred to a less restrictive prison in Texas from Florida.
“This move smacks of a cover up,” Epstein victims Annie Farmer and Maria Farmer, as well as Giuffre’s relatives said in a statement.
“President Trump has sent a clear message today: Pedophiles deserve preferential treatment and their victims do not matter,” the statement said, noting that the two women and Giuffre’s family had not been notified of Maxwell’s transfer before media reports of it.
Maxwell’s transfer to minimum security camp in Bryan, Texas, came after two days of meetings she and her lawyer had last week in Tallahassee, Florida, with a top Justice Department official.
That official, Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche, is Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer.
Trump is a former friend of Epstein and Maxwell.
“It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received,” the statement said.
“Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency,” the statement said.
“Yet, without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas,” the statement said.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, with a photo of herself as a teen, when she says she was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew, among others. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Emily Michot | Miami Herald | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
“This is the justice system failing victims right before our eyes. The American public should be enraged by the preferential treatment being given to a pedophile and a criminally charged child sex offender. The Trump administration should not credit a word Maxwell says, as the government itself sought charges against Maxwell for being a serial liar,” the statement said.
“This move smacks of a cover up. The victims deserve better,” the statement said.
Mawell’s lawyer, who confirmed the transfer to NBC, did not explain why the 63-year-old was transferred from the federal minimum security prison in Tallahassee.
A senior administration official told NBC News, “Any false assertion this individual was given preferential treatment is absurd.”
“Prisoners are routinely moved in some instances due to significant safety and danger concerns,” the official said.
Jack Scarola, a lawyer who represents 20 Epstein victims, told NBC News, “The victims of the Epstein/Maxwell conspiracy continue to endure the emotional pain of every development in the negotiations with Ghislaine Maxwell.”
“They wait anxiously and expect to be afforded full access to all relevant information concerning the criminal conduct that has so severely damaged them,” Scarola said. “Then, once properly informed, they look forward to having their voices be heard with respect to any action concerning Ms. Maxwell that might be contemplated.”
Maxwell was convicted at trial in 2021 of crimes related to grooming underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Blanche met with Maxwell for hours last week after saying he was interested in learning whether she had information about other potential abuses of girls and women in Epstein’s orbit.
Blanche asked Maxwell “maybe about 100 different people,” her lawyer David Oscar Markus said last week.
Blanche’s meeting raised questions about whether the Trump administration will seek a reduction of Maxwell’s sentence or whether President Donald Trump will pardon her.
The Justice Department and Trump have been criticized for nearly a month for failing to release evidence accumulated in an investigation into Epstein despite prior promises to make that information public.
The New York Sun first reported that Maxwell had been transferred from her prison in Florida.
Epstein died in August 2019 from a jailhouse suicide, weeks after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.