Ghislaine Maxwell banned from training service puppies over sex abuse crimes
Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in late financier Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex abuse ring, was transferred to a lower-security Texas prison camp last week, but she won't be enjoying all of the perks available to the inmates at the cushy location.
Federal Prison Camp Bryan offers several amenities and rehabilitation programs for inmates, including service dog training courses. However, Canine Companions, which runs the prison program, told NBC News that Maxwell will be unable to participate in the training sessions due to her 2021 conviction of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
'We do not allow anyone whose crime involves abuse towards minors or animals — including any crime of a sexual nature,' Paige Mazzoni, CEO of Canine Companions, told the outlet.
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Mazzoni said that it's a 'hard policy' Canine Companions has in place, and that Maxwell 'will not be able to' take part in the program.
She added that the restrictions are in place to protect the animals.
'Those are crimes against the vulnerable, and you're putting them with a puppy who is vulnerable,' she said.
Canine Companions' Prison Puppy Raising program allows selected inmates to train service puppies as part of their rehabilitation. The inmates are responsible for the same socialization and training as any volunteer puppy raiser.
According to the training program's website, the puppies accompany the handlers throughout the day at mealtimes, during work assignments, recreational periods and more. Specific times have been allocated to incorporate feeding, training and exercising the puppies.
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In the evening, the puppies are crated in the cells of the puppy trainers. Non-incarcerated volunteers also take the puppies outside of the prison environment to acclimate them to different public settings.
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Maxwell was moved from a federal prison in Florida to the Texas prison camp last week as her criminal case is generating renewed public attention.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons said on Aug. 1 that Maxwell had been transferred to Bryan, Texas, but did not explain the circumstances. Her lawyer, David Oscar Markus, also confirmed the move but declined to discuss the reasons for it with The Associated Press.
Maxwell had been held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Fla., until her transfer to the prison camp, where other inmates include Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah.
Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates the Bureau of Prisons considers to be the lowest security risk. Some don't even have fences.
The prison camps were originally designed with low security to make operations easier and to allow inmates tasked with performing work at the prison, like landscaping and maintenance, to avoid repeatedly checking in and out of a main prison facility.
Prosecutors have said Epstein's sex crimes could not have been done without Maxwell, but her lawyers argue that she was wrongfully prosecuted and denied a fair trial. They have also floated the idea of a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up her case.
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'We are appealing not only to the Supreme Court but to the President himself to recognize how profoundly unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein's crimes, especially when the government promised she would not be prosecuted,' Maxwell's lawyer said in a statement.
Here's our statement about Ghislaine's Reply Brief that we filed in the Supreme Court today:
'No one is above the law—not even the Southern District of New York. Our government made a deal, and it must honor it. The United States cannot promise immunity with one hand in Florida… https://t.co/x6YlEyAQsb
— David Oscar Markus (@domarkus) July 28, 2025
On Friday, Trump denied that anyone had asked him about clemency for Maxwell.
'I'm allowed to do it but nobody's asked me to do it,' he told Newsmax in an interview. 'I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons, I've given pardons to people before, but nobody's even asked me to do it.'
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— With files from The Associated Press
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