New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez ordered the criminal investigation into alleged crimes at Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch to be re-opened in February. That appears to be up and running now.
Last week, AG Torrez released a letter to survivors, asking them to come forward for the investigation and promising to conduct it “with the rigor, respect, and compassion it deserves.”
“For far too long, you were ignored,” Torrez wrote. “Your abuse was systematically disregarded as investigations into Epstein’s crimes were deliberately stalled, abandoned, or compromised by the power Epstein wielded.”
Epstein’s crimes in New Mexico were never investigated. A previous investigation by a former state attorney general was closed in 2019 at the request of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. That was during Donald Trump’s first term.
Epstein bought the Zorro Ranch in 1993 and owned it until the day he died, in 2019. The ranch was sold in 2023 for an undisclosed amount to secret owners, eventually outed as the family of Texas’ MAGA politician and likely next state comptroller, Don Huffines. Also in 2019, an email was sent to a radio talk show host alleging murders at the ranch. The host turned over the email to the FBI, which seems to have done no further investigation.
A former assistant to Jeffrey Epstein recently testified to Congress that she was abused by both Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell at the Zorro Ranch. Should Maxwell be convicted in New Mexico, Donald Trump will not be able to pardon her, as he obviously longs to do.
This re-opened criminal investigation is separate from the state’s Truth Commission. That was launched earlier this year with a wider scope of inquiry. However, the Truth Commission has said it plans to coordinate with the state’s Department of Justice.
Truth Commission co-founder Rep. Andrea Romero said in March that she had spoken with some Epstein survivors. “They said among the things that were happening with Jeffrey Epstein and his whole operation in various states that New Mexico was basically the worst,” she told the Santa Fe New Mexican. “And I don't know what that means entirely.”
