House Oversight Democrats Seek Interview With Former Real Housewife Who Dished on Prison Life With Ghislaine Maxwell

House Oversight Democrats are awaiting word from a former Real Housewives star whose recent dish on prison life with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell has them asking her to spill more tea. Officials at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, where Maxwell was moved last year, released Jen Shah, the Salt Lake City franchise alumna, in December, after serving less than half of her six-and-a-half-year sentence for a wire fraud conviction tied to a telemarketing scheme. Shah then moved to a halfway house overseen by Bureau of Prison officials in Phoenix before reuniting with her family in Utah, where they have downsized from the Park City mansion they rented during the Bravo TV series. Last week, People magazine released an interview with the reality diva, who was incarcerated alongside Maxwell and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, also serving a sentence for fraud and conspiracy charges.Shah, who befriended Holmes, said she “didn’t have a lot of interaction” with Maxwell, but saw her frequently at the gym, where Shah was on work duty. She said Maxwell would come over and talk to her and Holmes, but otherwise had a very different experience from everyone else in the prison.“She was treated very well there,” Shah said. “She was afforded things that nobody else was afforded, like private workout sessions, special meals, bottled water.” “Everybody witnessed it, and I know that firsthand because I worked in [recreation], so I would have to clean things up. I was also asked for certain equipment because she was going to go work out late at night.”Shah said that the woman convicted of peddling girls to the rich and famous showed no remorse for the victims of the sex trafficking ring believed to have been led by Epstein.“She made it very publicly known, at least to Elizabeth and I, that there’s no remorse there, and again, I obviously don’t know all the details of the case or whatever but we know enough,” she said.“It was a lot when the victims would be on TV and talking, she would just show complete disregard for them. This was when they were pouring their hearts out in front of Congress for the files to be released. To be so dismissive of that just didn’t sit with me the right way.” The Bureau of Prisons denied in a statement to People that Maxwell was treated differently than other inmates, saying that staff is prohibited from giving anyone “preferential treatment.”Representative Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee investigating the Epstein files, told CNN that he reached out to Shah on the day that the People interview was released.“I think that we’re engaged in a communication with her representatives and we hope that she will come see us,” said Mr. Garcia, an admitted Bravo TV fan.“I never thought my interest and love for the real Housewives franchise and my work on the oversight committee would collide,” the lawmaker said, adding, “If she is watching, please respond. We definitely want to talk. I think she’s got critical information.” The New York Sun has reached out to Mr. Garcia to learn of any progress on the request.The congressional investigation rests heavily on Maxwell’s testimony in light of Epstein’s suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years on five charges related to sex trafficking, has refused to appear before the oversight panel unless she’s granted clemency. Maxwell has already received preferential treatment by the Trump administration, which moved her to the minimum-security Bryan facility from Oakdale prison in Louisiana in exchange for her cooperation.Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the investigation is going nowhere, not only because Maxwell is not cooperating but because the Justice Department has not fully complied with a federal law requiring the release of millions of documents tied to the decades-old allegations. Mr. Garcia and Democrats on the Oversight Committee say the now-ousted attorney general, Pam Bondi, is not relieved of her responsibility to testify to the panel just because she is no longer in her position. The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said the department has released all the files it’s going to release and lawmakers are able to come to the department to see any document, including unredacted versions, if they want.

House Oversight Democrats Seek Interview With Former Real Housewife Who Dished on Prison Life With Ghislaine Maxwell

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