Whistleblower who approached House Democrats about a sex crime conviction Ghislaine Maxwell who received benefits at a federal prison camp in Texas says she wasn't motivated by politics.
Instead, “it was about general human decency and what's right for all prisoners,” Noella Turnage, a nurse who worked at the Bryan federal prison camp from 2019 until she was fired last week, told NBC News on Monday.
She added that when just one inmate suffers unfair retribution, “and influence protects another, someone has to say something.”
Maxwell's time at FPC Bryan, a minimum security women's facility, came under scrutiny following her transfer there in early August from a maximum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. Her relationship with the deceased convict sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has become the center of attention as Democrats and some Republicans renew their efforts to force the Justice Department to release all investigative materials in the Epstein case.
Turnage said she was not motivated by public outrage over Epstein, Maxwell or any other public figures, but acted because she felt “let down by the institution” when colleagues and others spoke out about alleged management misconduct and retaliation.
She said the Federal Bureau of Prisons fired her on Nov. 10. The decision came a day after the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, wrote a letter to President Donald Trump speaking they got information from an “informant” indicating that Maxwell was working on filing a “commutation application” and receiving special treatment not typically provided to inmates at Bryan. The information obtained by the House Judiciary Committee included email correspondence sent by Maxwell during her first few months in the prison camp.
Leah Safian, Maxwell's lawyer, said on Friday that FPC Bryan employees lost their jobs because Maxwell's emails were published.
There were employees “fired for improper, unauthorized access to an email system used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons that allows inmates to communicate with the outside world,” Safian said in a statement.
NBC News previously reviewed Maxwell's emails. this indicated that she was “more happy” about moving to a facility that was cleaner and where the staff were friendly.
Maxwell's emails also said she had direct access to Bryan's jailer, Tanisha Hall, for help, including arranging visits and communicating with her lawyers – actions that are highly unusual, say other lawyers who work with clients in the prison.
The BOP and Hall did not respond to requests for comment about the employees fired in connection with Maxwell.
Turnage said she was in contact with the House Judiciary Committee after Raskin wrote a letter to Hall on Oct. 30 asking about Maxwell's alleged “VIP treatment.”
In that letter, Raskin said he was alarmed by news reports that the prison was providing Maxwell's visitors with special accommodations and other supposed benefits, such as having meals delivered to her dorm room, late-night workouts and the ability to shower after other inmates had gone to bed for the night.
His investigation also included other allegations from prisoners that they were threatened with retribution if they spoke about Maxwell to the media. At least two prisoners were subsequently transferred from Bryan. according to media reports who reviewed the balance of payments records. NBC News has not confirmed the reason for the transfers.
Turnage and another former Bryan staffer, Ashley Anderson, said they spoke with House Democratic committee staffers about allegations that BOP policies were repeatedly violated and that retaliation was meted out against those who report wrongdoing.
Anderson, who worked as a senior case manager at Bryan for a decade before she was fired in August, said she had tried to speak out in support of inmates who reported alleged abuse, but that there remained “flaws in a system that often lacks transparency, accountability and fairness.”
Safian called the release of Maxwell's emails “inappropriate” and denied that a pardon application had been submitted to the Trump administration. She also said she would file a habeas petition in the Southern District of New York to challenge Maxwell's 20-year prison sentence for recruiting minors for sexual abuse by Epstein.
Epstein committed suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell's transfer to FPC Bryan in early August came days after her meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July. At that meeting, Maxwell told Blanche that she had never witnessed any inappropriate behavior by Trump or other prominent figures in Epstein's orbit, according to the transcript. Trump, whose name appeared in unclassified records as Epstein's friend before the two fell out, has not been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing.
Trump initially supported the release of documents related to Epstein, but then sparred with Democrats and some members of his own party, saying not all files should be released.
Last week, the House Oversight Committee released thousands of emails from the Epstein estate, including many who referenced Trump. On Sunday Trump suddenly changed his position on this issuewriting on his Truth Social account that House Republicans should vote to release Epstein's files “because we have nothing to hide.”
Turnage and Anderson said in a follow-up statement that the conversation with members of Congress about their time in Bryan was not intended to influence political narratives in the broader Epstein saga.
“It was about the truth and nothing else,” they said. “It was about telling the truth about how both staff and prisoners were treated.”
