Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has shed some light on why the AG's office honored a 2019 request from the federal government to halt its investigation at Zorro Ranch.
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 end 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 current AG Raul Torrez, the federal prosecutors never held up their end of the 2019 agreement. Torrez reopened the investigation earlier this year and says the federal government so far has not cooperated with his requests for records. Torrez said he is prepared to use litigation to obtain unredacted federal records about Epstein's activity in New Mexico. Torrez said earlier this month the USDOJ has records that contain the names of survivors, witnesses, co-conspirators and others that the state needs to complete its investigation.
A USDOJ spokesperson provided a statement to Source NM that said the agency, “substantively responded last month to requests from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office." The statement went on to say that that the USDOJ welcomes New Mexico's investigation.
Zorro Ranch is the sprawling Santa Fe County property owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein until his death in 2019. The property has been under scrutiny again in recent months as protesters have gathered outside its gates, Torrez reopened the AG office's investigation and the state legislature formed the Epstein Truth Committee to investigate Epstein's alleged crimes in New Mexico.
