"I see a lot of blind eyes. New Mexico was treated like a ghost," Rachel Benavides told the Survivors' Truth Commission on Wednesday. Benavides introduced herself as an Epstein survivor at the beginning of her testimony.
Committee Chair Andrea Romero and Benavidez both spoke of how the federal government searched Epstein's other properties in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands. But, they say, victims in New Mexico have been ignored for decades.
"Starting in the 1990s, crimes of sexual abuse committed at Zorro Ranch were reported to the FBI by the very victims against whom these crimes were committed," Benavides said as she held back tears. "The FBI reportedly hung up on Maria Farmer in 1996. Maria's younger sister Annie Farmer was misled, sexually abused by both Jeffrey [Epstein] and Ghislaine [Maxwell], and also reported it to the FBI."
The legislative investigative subcommittee met at the state capitol to present its newly released interim report. The report details the Truth Commission's progress so far on its investigation into Zorro Ranch- the massive Santa Fe County property that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein owned until his death in 2019.
Representative Marianna Anaya said during the presentation that the commission has so far found evidence that Jeffrey Epstein abused five women and girls at Zorro Ranch between 1996 and 2012. Anaya said there are at least 30 others who Epstein may have abused at Zorro Ranch but remain unconfirmed because their names are blacked out of the federal record. Romero repeated the position that every page of the Epstein Files should be released.
Romero said that Epstein and his longtime partner Ghislaine Maxwell flew many women and girls to Albuquerque and Santa Fe on Epstein's private jet. She said that many of the flight logs are incomplete and that the Federal Aviation Administration has not yet complied with the commission's subpoena.
The commission issued four new subpoenas during the meeting- to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, the New Mexico Taxation Revenue Department and Ten Thousand Waves Spa. Records show that Epstein recruited massage therapists from Ten Thousand Waves but Romero noted the subpoena does not imply any wrongdoing by management or ownership.
The bipartisan commission also plans to introduce legislation to reform the state's sex offender registry and statute of limitations laws.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez announced Wednesday that the New Mexico Department of Justice is suing the U.S. Department Justice. NMDOJ is bringing the suit in a District of Columbia court in an effort to compel its federal counterpart to provide complete and unredacted Epstein files.
Torrez said on a press call that his office has made 10 requests for the files since it reopened an investigation into Zorro Ranch in February. Former New Mexico AG Hector Balderas paused a state investigation into Zorro Ranch in 2019. The state AG's office said in a statement that shortly after Jeffrey Epstein's 2019 sex crimes arrest, federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York asked Balderas to pause the investigation and turn over any information it had gathered. In return, the federal prosecutors agreed to return any New Mexico-related findings over to the state AG's office once its case was over. According to Balderas and Torrez, the federal prosecutors never held up their end of the 2019 agreement.
Since reopening the investigation, Torrez said the NMDOJ has received 31 pages of documents from the local U.S. Attorney's office.
"That included virtually nothing of of relevance or importance to the investigation," Torrez said. "Despite the fact that Zorro Ranch is referenced nearly over 13,000 times in the Epstein files."
Torrez went on to say that most of those thousands of references to Zorro Ranch are completely or partially redacted. He said the redactions obscure not only the names of victims, but also the names of potential co-conspirators.
The USDOJ said in an email to KSFR that the Epstein Files Transparency Act does not permit the disclosure of victim-identifying information. The statement went on to say, "New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures. Protecting victim privacy remains a top priority."
But Torrez said those factors are irrelevant to his request.
"To put things in context, our request does not hinge on the Epstein Files Transparency Act," Torrez said. "Our request is a routine request from a state law enforcement agency to a federal law enforcement counterpart."
Torrez said state and local law enforcement and the current owners of the property have complied with the investigation.
"The truth is, the federal government is the only entity that is involved in this investigation or impacted by this investigation that is stonewalling our request for access or information," Torrez said. "Why that is, I will leave it to you to judge."
