Democrats demand answers over DOJ’s prison policy change tied to Ghislaine Maxwell

House Democrats want answers about a recent policy change at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, arguing leaders at the Department of Justice are trying to “cover their tracks” following the August transfer of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to a lower-security facility.

That new policy, which was published last month and has not been previously reported, dictates that “in certain circumstances, the Attorney General may exercise authority to designate or redesignate the place of a prisoner’s imprisonment.” 

Democrats argue the expansion of federal authority over inmate placement is a major departure from previous policies, which they say vested more authority in the Bureau of Prisons and placed specific restrictions on where inmates could be held — including taking into account whether the prisoner is a sex offender. 

Rep. Deborah Ross of North Carolina, a Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the “clear implication” is that — under the old rules — the Department of Justice violated the Bureau of Prisons own rules when it “transferred Ghislaine Maxwell to Club Fed, where sex offenders are not allowed to be.”

“Since it violated the policy for who can do prison transfers, they’re trying to cover their tracks retroactively,” Ross alleged. 

Last year, Maxwell was transferred from a low-security facility in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas, shortly after she met with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said he wanted to talk about what she knows about Epstein. 

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minors. She has appealed for President Donald Trump to grant her clemency. 

“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out what they’re doing,” Ross said of the DOJ.

Amping up pressure on the Trump administration for answers, Ross sent a letter, shared first with MS NOW, to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Friday morning.

In it, Ross asks the agency to explain what prompted the policy change and how it was developed. She also asks for the bureau to detail how many times the Attorney General has intervened regarding a prison designation or redesignation decision. 

“Given Congress’s responsibility to oversee the federal correctional system and ensure that BOP policies are evidence-based, transparent, and consistent with statutory requirements, we require answers on how and why your Bureau decided to give the Attorney General the authority to unilaterally transfer inmates and disregard the BOP evaluation of an inmate’s safety classification,” Ross writes in the letter.

The letter also says the new policy “raises troubling questions about the scope of the Attorney General’s asserted authority, the circumstances under which this authority may be exercised, and the potential effects on institutional operations, fairness, transparency, and consistency in federal prisoner placement decisions.”