Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate and convicted accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will ask US President Donald Trump to commute her prison sentence, a leading US Democrat says.

Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter to Trump that Maxwell was working on filing a commutation application, citing an unnamed whistleblower.

Raskin said the information signalled Maxwell either wanted to be released from her prison sentence or was making recommendations about other federal convicts to the Justice Department.

The request comes just months after Maxwell’s transfer to a minimum-security prison in Texas following a meeting with US Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.

In his letter to Trump on Sunday (US time), Raskin argued that Maxwell’s preparation of a clemency petition suggested she had significant influence over Trump’s second administration, to the extent that the Justice Department was following her recommendations for clemency.

Raskin wrote that Maxwell had custom-prepared meals delivered directly to her cell, that the warden made special accommodations for her to meet with visitors, and that she was allowed to have special time to play with a puppy, among other exceptions from standard prisoner treatment.

One Bureau of Prisons employee reportedly even complains in the documents that they are “sick of having to be Maxwell’s b–ch.”

“Any inmate or staff who questions or blows the whistle on the institution’s grotesque pampering of a serial sexual abuser and human trafficker at taxpayer expense is being punished and retaliated against by [the prison warden],” Raskin wrote.

Raskin asked in the letter that Blanche attend a public hearing with the House Judiciary Committee.

“What information is Ms Maxwell agreeing to suppress in order to receive such outlandishly favourable treatment as a federal prisoner and convicted sex offender?” he wrote.

The Democrats’ accusations come amid a record US government shutdown, which is beginning to ease after a preliminary budget agreement.

Trump has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Maxwell. But the White House would not respond to questions on the issue following Raskin’s letter.

“The White House does not comment on potential clemency requests. As President Trump has stated, pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell is not something he has thought about,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

Maxwell, a British national, is serving her sentence in a prison in Texas and has denied the accusations against her.

The families of Epstein’s victims have asked that Maxwell remain in prison, arguing that a pardon would be an injustice to those who suffered his crimes.

In 2021, Maxwell was convicted in a New York federal court on five counts related to sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She is the only associate of Epstein to face prison time.

Epstein died in custody while awaiting trial in 2019.

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-with AAP