Ghislaine Maxwell to ask Trump to commute sex-trafficking sentence
Democrats have written to the US President informing him of the bid – and raising concerns about special treatment they say she has received.
Ghislaine Maxwell is planning to ask President Donald Trump to reduce her 20-year federal prison sentence for the sex trafficking of minors, according to leaked documents.
Maxwell “is preparing a ‘commutation application’ for your administration to review, undoubtedly coming to you for your direct consideration”, Democrats on the House of Representatives judiciary committee wrote in a letter to the President on Sunday (local time), reported by ABC News.
“The warden herself is directly helping Ms Maxwell copy, print and send documents related to this application.”
Maxwell, an accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein who was sentenced by a New York judge in 2022 after a five-week sex-trafficking trial the previous December. In October this year, she had an appeal petition rejected by the US Supreme Court, narrowing her chances of getting out early.
The President has the power to pardon Maxwell or show clemency by helping reduce her sentence - known as a “commutation”.
Asked specifically about the possibility of a pardon over the summer, Trump said: “I’m allowed to do it … but it’s something I have not thought about.”
Maxwell met Todd Blanche, the deputy US Attorney-General and Trump’s former personal lawyer, in late July to discuss what information she could provide them. Days later Maxwell, the 63-year-old daughter of the British media baron Robert Maxwell, was transferred from a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
The highly unusual decision to move Maxwell, who did not meet any of the usual requirements for such a significant downgrade in security, prompted outrage among the American public, which has been demanding transparency in the government’s handling of the Epstein case.
The Justice Department has declined to discuss what had influenced its decision, or whether her sex-offender designation had been waived to facilitate the move.
“Federal law-enforcement staff working at the camp have been waiting on Ms Maxwell hand and foot,” read the letter signed by Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and seen by ABC News.
The committee’s letter said the panel had received information that the prison-camp staff had “heaped favourable concierge-style treatment on Ms Maxwell” such as customised meals and additional security measures.
A “whistleblower” also told the committee Maxwell was given special time to play with a service dog in training in Camp Bryan.
When Maxwell wanted to arrange a private meeting with visitors, the letter said, “the warden personally arranged it for her - and then provided a special cordoned-off area for visitors to arrive, as well as an assortment of snacks and refreshments for her guests”.
Maxwell’s visitors were allowed to bring computers, which it called “an unprecedented action by the warden given the security risk and potential for Ms Maxwell to use a computer to conduct unmonitored communications with the outside world”.
Over the weekend, emails written by Maxwell in prison to friends and family were obtained and shared by House Democrats. NBC News reported that she wrote: “My situation is improved by being at Bryan. I feel like I have dropped through Alice in Wonderlands [sic] looking glass. I am much much happier here and more importantly safe.”
Mr Raskin wrote in a letter to Mr Trump: “You should not grant any form of clemency to this convicted and unrepentant sex offender. Your administration should not be providing her with room service, with puppies to play with, with federal law-enforcement officials waiting on her every need, or with any special treatment or institutional privilege at all.”
Democrats called for Mr Blanche to be brought before a public hearing to answer questions from the committee about any “potential exchange of favours” in Maxwell’s case.
The family of the Epstein and Maxwell accuser Virginia Giuffre told The Times: “We too feel we are living in the parallel world of Alice’s looking glass, one in which survivors of Maxwell’s violence, rape and trafficking of children, as well as their families and loved ones, are overlooked by the very people we elected to help us.
“It’s time for President Trump to decide, and the answer is yes or no. Will you unequivocally rule out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell?”
The Times
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