The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has apparently ignored a Friday deadline set by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez to share information about the abuse of girls at the Zorro ranch, a remote property formerly owned by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Torrez's office had requested unredacted files in February after reopening a dormant criminal investigation into activities at the 10,000-acre ranch in desert scrub outside Santa Fe. The DoJ did not respond to a request for comment as the 31 July deadline passed.
Background: Epstein's Zorro ranch and the investigation
Epstein bought the Zorro ranch in 1993 from the estate of former Democratic New Mexico governor Bruce King. The property has been a focus of survivor testimony and recent releases of the so-called Epstein files, which included thousands of mentions of the ranch and numerous photographs of men and young girls there. Unlike Epstein's properties in Palm Beach, New York, and his private Caribbean island, no federal search of the ranch was ever confirmed to have taken place.
Torrez reopened the investigation, first launched by his predecessor Hector Balderas in February 2019, and set a deadline for federal prosecutors from the DoJ and the US attorney's office for the southern district of New York (SDNY), which led the original Epstein investigation, to allow access to their documents. Despite promises of cooperation from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton, former US attorney for the SDNY and now director designate of national intelligence, Torrez said only 31 pages were ever handed over, mostly old news clippings and heavily redacted pages of little use to state investigators.
Legal threats and stonewalling
In a 14 July letter to Blanche, Torrez said he would "pursue all available legal remedies without further notice" if the deadline passed, having made "repeated, documented, good-faith efforts to obtain the unredacted investigative records in the USDOJ's custody." In an interview with Albuquerque ABC News affiliate KOAT, Torrez said: "I'm not taking anything off the table. I'm not ruling out a lawsuit."
According to Torrez, the SDNY called him in July to announce that it would not cooperate. However, Clayton, in his confirmation hearing in the US Senate last month, told Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico: "My folks, I think as we speak, are seeking dialogue with the attorney general to see if we can reach an accommodation." Clayton noted that the documents were subject to certain "protective orders," namely redactions to hide the identities of victims.
Blanche, accused in February by Democrats of a "full-blown cover-up" of the Epstein files, told his own confirmation hearing last month that he was "continuing to work" with the New Mexico department of justice. But Torrez said he had heard nothing further from either Blanche or the SDNY.
US attorney's office response and Torrez's frustration
The US attorney's office for the district of New Mexico, in a statement to the Guardian, said it had "substantively responded" to Torrez's request on 30 June by emailing the 31 documents. A spokesperson said some were communications directing Torrez to the SDNY, and that the New Mexico US attorney's office "did not lead or handle the Zorro Ranch investigation and therefore neither collected nor retained any investigative materials."
Torrez did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian on Friday. He told MS Now's the Briefing with Jen Psaki on 23 July that he was annoyed by months of stonewalling from Blanche, Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, whose confirmation is in peril. "It appears that the administration has been really focused on the management of communications around the Epstein case, rather than acting in a way that demonstrates a commitment to getting to the truth and getting to accountability," said Torrez.
Especially frustrating, he told MS Now, was the conduct of the SDNY after the first, Balderas-ordered investigation was shelved. Torrez said: "We stood down that investigation at the explicit request of the southern district of New York, and so to have them fail to honor their agreement and then not give us access to this file is extremely unusual, and it's complicating our ability to advance this criminal investigation."
Impact on survivors and next steps
Blanche "has the authority right now, with the stroke of a pen, to grant us this access, to let us, our investigators and prosecutors, come and take a look at the files, identify co-conspirators, witnesses, corroborating evidence, identify new potential leads," Torrez added. "Every day that goes by that that doesn't happen is another day that we've delayed delivering justice for the survivors."
Epstein died in jail in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. The fight for documents relating to his activities at Zorro ranch has become a cat-and-mouse affair, with Torrez vowing to pursue legal action if necessary. The outcome could have significant implications for the ongoing investigation and the pursuit of justice for the survivors.
