'Perk after perk': Deborah Ross grills Bondi over Maxwell's transfer, calls for 'full investigation'

"Does a convicted sex offender like Ghislaine Maxwell deserve special treatment and privileges in prison?" Congresswoman Deborah Ross asked Attorney General Pam Bondi as she testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the Epstein Files on February 11. "Let me be crystal clear with you. No," Bondi started her response, but was stopped mid-sentence with a "thank you" from Ross. Bondi wanted to point out that she was unaware of Maxwell's transfer before it happened. 

Congresswoman Ross, however, having gotten a direct answer to her question, went on to say that she had a few more questions for the Attorney General. Earlier, Ross had pointed out that Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator "received perk after perk in prison." "In July, she had a two-day interview with your deputy and President Trump's former defence attorney, Todd Blanche. Just days after that, Maxwell was transferred from a federal correctional institution in Florida to a minimum security camp in Texas, which she, as a sex offender, would normally be ineligible for," Ross said. These special privileges, the Congresswoman mentioned, included "private workouts, personal mail, and secretarial services."

As Bondi tried to answer that she was unaware of the transfer, she was interjected, as Ross continued, "I want you to know that every time she does get these perks, and it's been publicly reported, that the folks she's abused, the survivors who are sitting here, they see themselves as being denied justice." Maxwell has been described by many Epstein survivors, including the late Virginia Giuffre, as the mastermind and an active participant in the decades-long abuse. 

In 2020, five years before she took her own life, Guiffre had told CBS's Gayle King that Maxwell was a "monster". "She is a monster. She is worse than Epstein. She did things even worse than Epstein did. She was vicious. She was evil. And she was a woman," Guiffre had said. "Jeffrey was a sick pedophile, but she was the mastermind," Guiffre, who had first come across Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago when she was 16, had added.

Congresswoman Ross continued to grill Bondi on why the transfer was made, to which the Attorney General said that the question should be for the Bureau of Prisons, as she "was not involved in that at all," and tried to redirect the focus towards the death of Iryna Zarutska. Ross has now demanded a probe into how and why this administration has allowed Maxwell to receive special treatment.

Notably, Democratic lawmakers have pointed out that Maxwell's transfer occurred in August 2025, just days after she had the private, two-day interview with Deputy Attorney General Blanche, suggesting the move was a reward for cooperation or an attempt to influence her testimony regarding the Epstein Files.