About 30 miles south of Santa Fe, the town of Stanley, New Mexico, is a sleepy, sparsely populated ranching community where not much happens and not much is anticipated. In 1993, Jeffrey Epstein purchased Zorro Ranch, a large estate, and constructed a hilltop mansion with a private helipad and airstrip. The individuals tasked with looking into the alleged events inside those grounds largely neglected to investigate them for years.
The attorney general of New Mexico declared on Wednesday that he had had enough waiting.
Raúl Torrez sued the U.S. Department of Justice and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in federal court in Washington, D.C. The federal government is accused in the complaint of obstructing the state’s criminal investigation into sex crimes related to Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico. According to Torrez, the state has made ten separate requests for important documents and has received “anything but cooperation.” The lawsuit requests a court order requiring the DOJ to provide unredacted files that New Mexico investigators claim are necessary before they can file charges.
The filing was made on the same day that the New Mexico House of Representatives published an initial report from its own independent investigation into Epstein’s actions within the state. At least five women and girls were abused at Zorro Ranch between 1996 and 2012, according to that report, which also identified at least thirty other people who might have experienced, witnessed, or assisted abuse. The FAA was asked for Epstein’s flight records, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York was asked for evidence that New Mexico had turned over in 2019 but never returned. Seven of the commission’s subpoenas were rejected or completely disregarded.
The dispute revolves around that 2019 agreement. The lawsuit claims that in exchange for ongoing information sharing, New Mexico consented to halt its own Epstein investigation and turn over evidence to federal authorities. The federal inquiry came to an end. The state claims that the sharing never happened. “The federal prosecutors never prioritized New Mexicans,” the report clearly stated, “focusing instead on Epstein’s misdeeds in New York, Palm Beach, Florida, and the Virgin Islands, while leaving Epstein’s offenses in New Mexico unexamined.”
The DOJ retaliated with a well-known claim: New Mexico has not offered enough legal support for such widespread access, and federal court orders forbid the disclosure of victim-identifying information. “Protecting victim privacy remains a top priority,” an official from the department stated. However, some of Epstein’s survivors didn’t believe it. Several said in a joint statement that the DOJ’s stance was “laughable,” pointing out that the agency had previously disclosed the names and private information of victims in previous releases. “By holding onto these files,” the statement said, “Todd Blanche’s DOJ is simply continuing to protect abusers.”
It’s worth taking a moment to consider that dynamic. According to the DOJ, victims are being protected. According to the victims, they want the files made public. In an interview, Torrez stated clearly that the federal government is “hiding behind the Epstein survivors.”
A DOJ prosecution memo detailing a sexual assault at Zorro Ranch allegedly committed by a woman other than Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who is presently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, is also cited in the lawsuit. Torrez responded simply, “The truth is we don’t know at this point,” when asked if he thought another woman might have had a similar facilitating role. He continued, “Having access to the unredacted files would help answer that.”
It’s difficult to overlook the political aspect of this. In addition to being named as a defendant in the lawsuit, Blanche is currently undergoing Senate confirmation hearings for the attorney general post, where concerns regarding the DOJ’s handling of Epstein files have already surfaced as a source of contention. It feels intentional that New Mexico filed this lawsuit on the same day as the Truth Commission report. It might be.
In August 2019, Epstein passed away while in federal custody. He was never put to the test. No federal prosecution ever focused on the alleged crimes on a hilltop ranch in Stanley, New Mexico. According to Torrez, New Mexico might be among the last states with a practical way to hold people accountable. It remains to be seen if the courts will concur that the DOJ must cooperate. However, the state has stated unequivocally that it is done being patient.
