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Did the Federal Bureau of Prisons' inmate search database say that Ghislaine Maxwell was "Not in BOP custody" on Friday, August 1, 2025? Yes, that's true: A search for Maxwell by Lead Stories at 2 p.m. EDT showed a page that indicated she was not in the custody of the federal prison system. A statement from the BOP to Lead Stories a few minutes later said Maxwell was in their custody at its prison in Byron, Texas. The database would be updated at midnight to show her in custody, the spokesman said. Lead Stories confirmed did update early morning on August 2.

The claim that the BOP website indicated Maxwell was released appeared in a post (archived here) shared by the @IamCassandraEsq account on X on August 1, 2025: The caption above the image of the BOP search result read:

Trump officials say Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from Jacksonville to Federal Prison Camp Bryant in Texas, but BOP says otherwise. WHERE IS GHISLAINE?

This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:

(Image source: Screenshot of August 1, 2025, post by x.com/IamCassandraEsq)

When Lead Stories conducted the search of the Federal Inmate Search page, we confirmed the image was real:

(Image source: Screenshot of bop.gov by Lead Stories)

The Federal Bureau of Prisons' public affairs office quickly responded to Lead Stories' inquiry about Maxwell's status with this emailed statement:

We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas.

You may check our website's locator here https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/ for any future updates.

The locator function should update at midnight tonight to reflect this location.

To learn more about FPC Bryan, you may visit our public website here https://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/bry/.

Thank you,

Benjamin O'Cone

The inmate database was updated to verify Maxwell was in BOP custody at the Texas facility when Lead Stories conducted the same search at 5 a.m. EDT on August 2.

(Image source: Screenshot of bop.gov by Lead Stories)