A former inmate at Ghislaine Maxwell’s cushy prison camp says she was recently booted to a high-security prison—hours after an article came out in which she spoke out against Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, 44-year-old Julie Howell gave an interview to a British newspaper in which she said that she was “disgusted” by Maxwell’s transfer to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas.
Hours after the story ran on August 4, prison warden Tanisha Hall called Howell into her office and told her she was being transferred to the high-security Federal Detention Center in Houston.
Howell’s lawyer said that Hall told Howell that she “ruined my weekend” and that her phone was “blowing up” thanks to the article.
“Julie has been punished for crossing the system and speaking her mind openly,” attorney Patrick McLain told the Daily Mail. “President Trump has talked about wanting to punish and put in jail his political opponents. ... By speaking her mind, [Howell] has angered this administration and has suffered the consequences.”
In the article published by The Telegraph, Howell said that “every inmate I’ve heard from is upset she’s here” and that “this facility is supposed to house non-violent offenders.”
Howell is serving a one-year sentence for theft after she admitted to stealing from her former employer.
She was sentenced in June and had served just a few weeks at the Bryan camp—which has been referred to as a “Real Housewives prison” for its lax rules and cozy accommodations—before she found herself in the warden’s crosshairs for her comments about Maxwell.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate database confirms that Howell is being held at FDC Houston and says that her release date is in July 2026.
Howell’s account of Maxwell’s icy reception at Bryan is in line with what a prominent prison consultant said to CNN earlier this month, which is that Maxwell is considered “radioactive” by the facility’s white-collar inmates.
Maxwell was transferred to the facility unexpectedly on Aug. 1 about a week after Deputy Attorney General and Trump’s former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, spent nine hours interviewing her in Florida over two days.
Prior to her transfer, which required the federal Bureau of Prisons to issue an unprecedented waiver due to her status as a violent offender, she was serving her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee.
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) meeting with Maxwell followed furor from the president’s base after the DOJ and FBI concluded in a July 6 memo that Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial in jail, rather than being murdered, and no “client list” of wealthy co-conspirators existed. The files reportedly contain Trump’s name several times.
On Friday, the government released transcripts and audio recordings from the Blanche-Maxwell interviews, in which she said that she “never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting.”
“Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” Maxwell said. “And I just want to say that I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now.”
Maxwell’s attorneys have filed an application to the Supreme Court to review her conviction and have said that Maxwell “would welcome any relief” in the form of clemency.
Trump has not ruled out pardoning Maxwell.
The Daily Beast has contacted Howell’s lawyer, Maxwell’s lawyer, and the Federal Prison Camp at Bryan for comment.
