WATCH: NBC’s Welker Confronts Trump DOJ Official on Ghislaine Maxwell Being Moved to ‘More Permissive’ Prison

NBC’s Kristen Welker confronted a top Justice Department official about why Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a “more permissive” prison camp following her DOJ interview in July.

In the waning moments of a 20-minute showdown on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Welker pressed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell being transferred to a cushier minimum-security prison over the summer.

“In July, you interviewed her in Florida — where she was serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison,” Welker said. “Just a week later, Maxwell was moved to a more permissive prison camp in Texas. Why was she moved just days after you interviewed here Mr. Blanche?”

Initially, Blanche punter.

“So that’s a Bureau of Prison Security issue that I will not talk about,” Blanche said.

Welker promptly interjected.

“Did you have anything to do with it?” Welker said.

I am responsible for the Bureau of Prisons, so every decision that they make lands on my desk to the extent it needs to,” Blanche said. “But just let me talk about the security issue. At the time that I met Ms. Maxwell, There was a tremendous amount of scrutiny and publicity towards her, and the institution she was in, she was suffering numerous and numerous threats against her life. So the BOP is not only responsible for putting people in jail and making sure they stay in jail, but also for their safety. And so she was moved. She is in federal prison. She was in federal prison before, she’s in federal prison now. She’s doing 20 years because she was convicted. And the fact that she was, she moved, she might be moved to another institution tomorrow if security requires it. And that’s true of any federal inmate across this country.”

The Meet the Press moderator went on to note the objections raised by victims of Epstein and Maxwell.

“As you know, survivors were outraged by all of this — especially the fact that she was moved,” Welker said. “Why talk to Ghislaine Maxwell and not the survivors, Mr. Blanche?”

“What you just said is completely false,” Blanche replied. “We will talk to any survivor at any time, which is something that we have said from Day 1.”

“But have you talked to them?” Welker asked.

“Of course,” Blanche responded. “The attorney general and I spoke with a victim’s rights group as recently as Thursday, OK? And if folks want to talk to us next week, or the week after, or in the coming months, they know how to get a hold of us — and we will always talk to survivors and victims’ families.

“But just backing up to your question about Ms. Maxwell, nobody ever talked to her. Nobody ever asked her questions about what she knew. So when she said that she had something she wanted to say not was saying the fact she had been convicted. Of course we went and talked to her imagine if we didn’t talk to he,,r Imagine if she had said, ‘I have a story to tell and I would like to talk to the government’ and I said no. The same outrage would be directed at this department for not speaking with her. So so we’re trying to do our job here and we are doing our job here. But any victim that wants to talk the FBI, that wants a talk to Department of Justice, they can call us anytime.”

Watch above, via NBC.