Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrival to the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, this month has sent a shot of tension across its minimum-security all-female units, even while her lawyer says she’s in a safer facility as there is intense political inquiry around Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wants documents on Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to a minimum security prison: "protection racket."

And now, as Jeannie Suk Gersen explores, Ghislaine Maxwell’s case poses an essential legal question: What exactly is “the United States”? Plus: • Roman Polanski’s self-centered historical drama • James Baldwin,