Ahead of Blanche Confirmation Vote, Reed Reminds U.S. Senate That Blanche is Still Not Complying with the Epstein Files Law

WASHINGTON, DC - Ahead of the final confirmation vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to become the next U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Senator Jack Reed is reminding lawmakers that Mr. Blanche appears to be out of compliance with the law requiring full release of the Epstein Files. He continues to avoid releasing key facts about the Trump Administration's preferential treatment toward convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, who is Donald Trump's former acquaintance and Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator. This failure to provide these documents does not comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires this information to be made public.

Specifically, Reed wants the release of all records relating to Ghislaine Maxwell's special treatment while incarcerated. However, the Department of Justice (DOJ), on Blanche's watch, refuses to comply.

"In August 2025, I wrote to the Bureau of Prisons seeking all records relating to Ghislaine Maxwell's special treatment while incarcerated. Her highly unusual privileges, including a transfer from a Federal correctional institution to a prison camp, occurred just after she provided fawning testimony about President Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in a jailhouse interview with you. These circumstances raise serious questions that you promised her favorable treatment in exchange for trying to minimize President Trump's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein," Reed wrote directly to Blanche.

Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in a federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors over the course of a decade.

Reed is seeking records related to Mr. Blanche's July 24 and 25, 2025 trip to visit Maxwell in a Florida prison.

During the jailhouse visit, Blanche met with Maxwell and her attorney. They spoke for many hours, including a recorded portion of their conversations where Ms. Maxwell claimed that powerful men like Donald Trump and Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had not engaged in any inappropriate conduct that she witnessed. Blanche didn't even bother to ask why Epstein and Maxwell chose to fly a 17-year old girl across the Atlantic to meet Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew said in an interview with the BBC in 2019 that he could not recall ever meeting Giuffre and denied having any sexual contact with her. However, during civil litigation between Giuffre and Maxwell, another woman alleged in a sworn deposition that she was groped by Prince Andrew at Epstein's New York home, while she and Giuffre were sitting with the prince for a photo.

Shortly after Blanche's visit and Maxwell's statements, she was mysteriously transferred from the Florida prison to the minimum security Federal Prison Camp Bryan - better known as 'Club Fed' in Bryan, Texas.

While records relating to the visit are withheld, the publicly available transcript of the Blanche-Maxwell 'proffer' shows that rather than rigorously questioning Maxwell and confronting her with contradictory, established trial evidence, Blanche failed to aggressively challenge implausible explanations regarding Maxwell's finances, memory, and conduct.

One week after telling Blanche what he wanted to hear, Ms. Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security facility, even though BOP policies do not ordinarily permit such transfers for recent offenders whose criminal history involves major sex offenses.

Reed's letter notes: "Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, DOJ must release the records justifying Ms. Maxwell's transfer. Section 2(a)(2) requires DOJ to "make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials . . . that relate to . . . Ghislaine Maxwell." This requirement has no further qualification, meaning that DOJ is required to make publicly available all documents related in any way to Ms. Maxwell. That includes documents related to how she serves her sentence. In correspondence to me shortly after the Epstein Files Transparency Act was enacted, a top DOJ official indicated that the records I am seeking related to Ms. Maxwell's transfer should be covered by the law.

"You claimed in your confirmation hearing that the current administration "has been more transparent than any past administration" regarding Jeffrey Epstein. Based on the DOJ's continued noncompliance with Section 2(a)(2) of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, I do not believe that is the case. In fact, DOJ has been hiding and concealing records that may be embarrassing to President Trump but that the public has a right to review," Reed's letter concludes.

Regardless of who the Attorney General is, Reed is urging DOJ to release these documents, as required by law, by August 31, 2026.

Full text of the letter follows:

Dear Acting Attorney General Blanche:

I write to ask when the Department of Justice will come into compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act by releasing all records related to convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security facility.

In August 2025, I wrote to the Bureau of Prisons seeking all records relating to Ghislaine Maxwell's special treatment while incarcerated. Her highly unusual privileges, including a transfer from a Federal correctional institution to a prison camp, occurred just after she provided fawning testimony about President Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in a jailhouse interview with you. These circumstances raise serious questions that you promised her favorable treatment in exchange for trying to minimize President Trump's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, DOJ must release the records justifying Ms. Maxwell's transfer. Section 2(a)(2) requires DOJ to "make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials . . . that relate to . . . Ghislaine Maxwell." This requirement has no further qualification, meaning that DOJ is required to make publicly available all documents related in any way to Ms. Maxwell. That includes documents related to how she serves her sentence. In correspondence to me shortly after the Epstein Files Transparency Act was enacted, a top DOJ official indicated that the records I am seeking related to Ms. Maxwell's transfer should be covered by the law.

You claimed in your confirmation hearing that the current administration "has been more transparent than any past administration" regarding Jeffrey Epstein. Based on the DOJ's continued noncompliance with Section 2(a)(2) of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, I do not believe that is the case. In fact, DOJ has been hiding and concealing records that may be embarrassing to President Trump but that the public has a right to review.

I request that DOJ release these documents, as required by law, by August 31, 2026.

Sincerely,

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