Ranking Members Raskin, Garcia Demand Answers for Rampant Sexual Abuse and Misconduct Uncovered at FPC Bryan; Announce Congressional Oversight Visit

Washington, D.C. (January 23, 2026)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi regarding the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) and Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) toleration of widespread misconduct at Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Texas. The Ranking Members’ letter details the reports of over a dozen whistleblowers who describe significant preferential treatment for Ghislaine Maxwell, widespread retaliation against inmates and whistleblowers, and endemic sexual assault against inmates. To fully investigate these reports, the Ranking Members tell Attorney General Bondi that the Committees will be visiting FPC Bryan next month in order to investigate and demand that the DOJ make Warden Tanisha Hall available for a transcribed interview to answer for the waste, fraud, and serious sexual abuse she has overseen at the facility.

The Ranking Members also sent a letter to Acting Inspector General of DOJ requesting he initiate an investigation into the reported staff misconduct at FPC Bryan and apparent widespread violation of federal law. The Ranking Members also ask that the DOJ Office of the Inspector General accompany the congressional delegation and staff to FPC Bryan and provide a briefing and all documents related to their oversight of Bryan.

Before this letter, the Ranking Members had repeatedly pressed Attorney General Bondi, DOJ, and BOP regarding the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell and conditions at FPC Bryan.

“At the end of October, the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee wrote to Warden Tanisha Hall of Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan, detailing credible allegations of retaliatory measures being taken against inmates who had reported the selective five-star treatment accorded to Ms. Maxwell by Warden Tanisha Hall and the general culture of corruption, lawlessness, and retribution saturating the camp. The House Judiciary Committee further requested that its staff be provided access to the camp to investigate these troubling reports first-hand.  DOJ and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have refused even to substantively respond to those requests—or any of the five letters we have collectively written on this issue since Maxwell’s extremely mysterious transfer. However, notably, they have not denied the accuracy of even a single one of these allegations,” wrote Ranking Members Raskin and Garcia.

Whistleblower Retaliation

Instead of properly investigating the issues raised by the Ranking Members, DOJ and BOP have engaged in a widespread pattern of retaliation against the people who report violations at the camp. Whistleblowers reveal that Warden Hall has fired those who made protected disclosures to Congress, an apparent violation of federal law, and interrogated prison staff regarding what whistleblower disclosures they may have made or been aware of. 

Preferential Treatment for Ghislaine Maxwell

Amid this wrongful retaliation, the Committees have continued to receive information about preferential treatment for Maxwell:

• Ms. Maxwell has been permitted to use a laptop, unsupervised, while at Bryan—a remarkable security risk under the facility’s own rules and procedures.
   
• While other inmates watch TV communally and drink tap water, Ms. Maxwell has been granted access to staff-only areas to watch CNN by herself, and she has been provided with bottled water with her meals.
   
• When Ms. Maxwell wanted to use a machine at the gym that had been broken for months during one of her private exercise sessions, a panic-stricken staff member roused an inmate to fix it.
   
• The Warden sends out Ms. Maxwell’s mail under the Warden’s own name, presumably so it will not be searched as with other inmates

Rampant Sexual Abuse

Whistleblowers also allege rampant instances of sexual abuse at FPC Bryan and a culture of silence and fear.

“Our investigators have also received significant information from numerous whistleblowers at FPC Bryan that Warden Hall and senior staff at the prison camp may have tolerated, encouraged, and even engaged in widespread sexual abuse and misconduct, in violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and federal criminal law,” continued the Ranking Members. 

These complaints include dozens of reported instances of sexual assault, several of which are provided below:  

• Multiple whistleblowers reported that a female inmate reported that a medical professional conducted unnecessary pelvic medical examinations, causing them to suffer extreme bleeding. These inmates, when they complained, were informed that the medical professional’s actions were “at most staff misconduct.” As of October 2025, the medical professional is still conducting examinations of patients at FPC Bryan. 
   
• Multiple whistleblowers reported that a guard ordered several female inmates to strip their clothing off so that they were completely naked for a search—even though another officer had performed a thorough search mere seconds earlier and informed the second guard of that fact. One of the two inmates was then ordered to bend over and touch her ankles, in order to, in the guard’s words: “put her in her place.”
   
• Multiple whistleblowers reported that a female inmate was repeatedly sexually abused by the prison chaplain, including in the prison chapel itself. When she reported to prison officials that she felt unsafe in the prison due to the sexual assault, she was allegedly transferred or “shipped” to multiple higher security institutions where she was unable to see her infant child for months at a time. The chaplain, who had also allegedly sexually abused several other inmates, was reportedly allowed to retire and now works with children in the Bryan area.

Evidence provided to the Committees show that several of these sexual abuse complaints have been raised through formal channels, but Warden Hall, her staff, and senior officials in the BOP have largely failed to investigate complaints. One inmate recently shared that she had filed a PREA complaint against another inmate for rape, thereby seeking some relief from the harassment she experienced, but the Warden allegedly has told her to stop talking about the rape and “deal with it.” Other whistleblowers report that senior officials at the prison camp, after a series of sexual abuse complaints were filed, berated women in one unit and demanded they “stop putting things in writing,” and a guard told one inmate that her complaint against a different guard had been put in the “shred pile.” The Warden has also warned inmates that if they so much as looked at the press, they would be transferred to higher security mixed-sex prisons more than 1,000 miles away in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

These allegations regarding FPC Bryan reflect the same systematic pattern of corruption and favoritism reaching the highest levels of the Trump Administration. The Ranking Members demand answers from both DOJ OIG and Attorney General Bondi, including on when a congressional delegation will be granted access to the camp, by January 29.

Click here to read the letter to Attorney General Bondi.

Click here to read the letter to Acting Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Don R. Berthiaume.