New Mexico Lawmakers Seek to Open Investigation Into Epstein’s Ranch

New Mexico lawmakers hope a new “Truth Commission” will help them uncover what happened at Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County as the public scrutinizes a tranche of documents released about the late convicted sex offender and financier.

Despite millions of pages and images detailing meetings, sex scandals, and corruption among influential elites released by the U.S. Department of Justice, much of what happened at the 7,500-acre ranch is still cloaked in secrecy.

“This has been an international story that we would like to have on the record for us,” Democratic state Rep. Andrea Romero told the House Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee.

State legislation creating the bipartisan commission, which would have the power to subpoena documents, was advanced by the committee on Jan. 30.

“It’s just horrifying that this has happened in our state,” Republican state Rep. John Block said. “I just hope that there’s no stone unturned. We can’t allow any children to be harmed in our state like what happened allegedly here.”

Some of the documents released by the Justice Department on Jan. 30 revealed meetings between Epstein and the state’s former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson after Epstein’s Florida conviction on sex crimes.

The Zorro Ranch property was first investigated by former state Attorney General Hector Balderas, who worked with the Justice Department’s regional offices in New York and New Mexico.

“Our office investigated activity that occurred in New Mexico that was still viable for prosecution, including contact with multiple victims,” Balderas told The Epoch Times in an email.

“During that time, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York asked that we hold any further state investigation or prosecution of activity related to Epstein, as they communicated to us that they were leading an active multi-jurisdictional prosecution,” he said.

In 2019, Balderas’s office handed off police reports, witness interviews, and other materials collected from the state’s criminal investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York.

Among hundreds of related documents obtained by local news outlet KRQE in 2024 was a letter from Clara Moran, former New Mexico chief deputy attorney general, to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York City in 2020.

“We believe that this ranch was used by Epstein and others to facilitate the commission and prolonged concealment of his trafficking of children,” Moran wrote.

Virginia Roberts, one of the girls interviewed by investigators in the 2000s, said she was taken to the ranch when she was 17. Another girl, Maria Farmer, told authorities Epstein abused her sister and flew her to the ranch in 1996, according to testimony.

Epstein purchased the property to build Zorro Ranch in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King, and it included about 8,000 acres of private land. He then expanded the compound by leasing state acreage around the compound.

He signed a will two days before he was found unresponsive in his prison cell, leaving the ranch and five other properties to his longtime lawyers to sell.

Epstein’s estate put the property on the market after his death in 2019 and it was sold two years later for an undisclosed price to San Rafael Ranch LLC, according to the New Mexico secretary of state’s office.

A request for information from the buyer’s Santa Fe attorney was not returned.

New Mexico’s State Land Office, which leased Epstein nearly 1,250 acres of state land around the ranch, canceled its lease agreement less than a month after his death, claiming the land was “no doubt used to protect the privacy of Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard told Balderas she was “looking for a reason to cancel the leases and criminal activity” gave them the perfect reason, according to documents recently released in the Epstein case.

The lands have not been leased since 2019, and the commissioner would be open to any law enforcement investigation of the property, according to the State Land Office.

“Frankly, we haven’t seen a good reason to lease it, considering everything that’s going on,” State Land Office spokesman Joey Keefe told The Epoch Times. “She would definitely be open to working with any law enforcement.”

If the legislation is passed by lawmakers and signed by the governor, New Mexico’s Truth Commission would investigate allegations of criminal activity and public corruption to find whether legislation or some other action is needed to provide for the safety and welfare, or for public confidence in state government, according to the authors of the bill.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office did not return requests for comment about Zorro Ranch and the investigation or proposed legislation.