Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has defended the controversial decision to move convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell to a less restrictive prison after she sat down for an interview with him.
Blanche, 51, cited security reasons for moving Jeffrey Epstein’s lover-slash-accomplice, 63, from a low-security jail in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas in August, just days after she spoke to the No. 2 at the Justice Department.
“Let me talk about the security issue,” he told Meet the Press on Sunday after NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed him on the transfer. “At the time that I met Ms. Maxwell, there was a tremendous amount of scrutiny and publicity towards her and the institution she was in. She was suffering numerous and numerous threats against her life.”
Blanche, a former Trump attorney, said it was the job of the Bureau of Prisons, an agency under the Justice Department, to ensure the safety of inmates.
“I am responsible for the Bureau of Prisons, so every decision that they make lands on my desk to the extent it needs to,” he explained. “She was in federal prison before, she’s in federal prison now. She’s doing 20 years because she was convicted and the fact that she was moved—she might be moved to another institution tomorrow, if security requires it, and that’s true of any federal inmate across this country.”
Epstein survivors previously blasted the former British socialite’s move as a “cover-up.”
Maxwell is jailed 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, until her December release. Maxwell was seen on her way to yoga class in September.
In October, President Donald Trump left the door open to a possible pardon of his former friend.
Asked if he was open to pardoning Maxwell, he told reporters: “You know, I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this‚ that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look.”
As for the long-awaited release of the Epstein files, Welker grilled Blanche on the Justice Department’s failure to publicize all documents by Friday as mandated by the law.
“It’s very simple and very clear. The statute also requires us to protect victims,” he said. “The reason why we’re still reviewing documents and still continuing our process is simply that: to protect victims. So the same individuals that are out there complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don’t want us to protect victims.”
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