Employees of a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where convicted child-sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is serving time have been terminated, one of Maxwell’s lawyers said Friday, after a whistleblower this week released to Rep. Jamie Raskin alleged correspondence between Maxwell and her lawyer.
Leah Saffian, a California-based attorney who has long-represented Maxwell, said in a statement: “The release to the media by Congressman Raskin (Dem., Maryland), of Ms. Maxwell’s privileged client-attorney email correspondence with me is as improper as it is a denial of justice.”
Saffian added that employees at the prison have been met with “appropriate consequences.”
“They have been terminated for improper, unauthorized access to the email system used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to allow inmates to communicate with the outside world,” she said.
CNN has reached out to the Bryan prison, Bureau of Prisons and the Justice Department for comment.
Earlier this week, Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, released what he said was information about Maxwell’s life inside the Bryan prison — including special privileges being afforded to the late-Jeffrey Epstein’s right-hand woman — that was shared with Raskin by a whistleblower.
The whistleblower also told Raskin that Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, is in the process of preparing to file an application for commutation. According to an email that the whistleblower shared with the committee, Maxwell wrote to Saffian in early October that she planned to send materials “through the warden.”
House Judiciary Committee Democrats on Friday defended how they received and released the information and disputed that the correspondence was privileged.
“The House Judiciary Committee Minority’s letter was based on a range of documents and information shared with Committee staff by a whistleblower. None of the documents shared with the Committee from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) TRULINCS system was subject to the attorney client privilege,” a House Judiciary Democratic spokeswoman told CNN.
The spokeswoman pointed out that individuals have to accept a disclaimer that their activity will be monitored once logging into the prison’s systems. She said the disclaimer makes clear that DOJ may monitor the system and that users must consent to such monitoring and have no expectation that communications will stay private.
Pertaining to attorney client privilege specifically, the Judiciary spokeswoman said the disclaimer includes this or similar language: “I understand and consent that this provision applies to electronic messages both to and from my attorney or other legal representative, and that such electronic messages will not be treated as privileged communications, and that I have alternative methods of conducting privileged legal communication.”
Raskin offered no description of the whistleblower — a typical practice meant to protect the person’s identity. The Democratic spokeswoman added the committee “won’t comment on any information that could identify whistleblowers, including whistleblowers’ employment status” and decried “any effort by BOP to intimidate, silence, or retaliate against anyone” who shared information.
In her Friday statement, Saffian also wrote: “Contrary to Rep. Raskin’s assertion, Ms. Maxwell has not requested a commutation — or made a Pardon — application to the second Trump Administration. Prior to any such application a Prisoner needs to demonstrate that all possible avenues of appeal have been exhausted.”
(Raskin did not say Maxwell had requested a commutation or pardon application; he said Maxwell was in the process of working on a commutation application.)
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