New Mexico Accuses the DOJ of Withholding Critical Zorro Ranch Evidence (7/10/26)

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is accusing the Justice Department of obstructing the state’s reopened criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch by refusing to provide complete, unredacted federal files. Torrez says the withheld material contains the names of survivors, witnesses, suspected co-conspirators and other people considered essential to determining what happened at the property south of Santa Fe. New Mexico requested the records in February 2026, when the state reopened an investigation that had originally been closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York. In a June 30 letter to Acting Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Torrez complained that the state had waited roughly 130 days without receiving the information investigators needed.

The Justice Department disputes the accusation, saying it responded to New Mexico in June and remains willing to assist with the Zorro Ranch investigation or pursue any federal crimes uncovered by state authorities. Torrez, however, argues that the delay is especially damaging because investigators are already confronting the loss or deterioration of evidence, the passage of decades since the alleged crimes and complicated questions about jurisdiction. The ranch was sold in 2023, making the preservation and recovery of physical evidence even more difficult. Nearly five months after reopening the case, Torrez has announced no major findings, but his criticism makes clear that New Mexico officials believe federal secrecy is preventing them from identifying potential victims, witnesses and accomplices connected to Epstein’s activities at the ranch.



to contact me:


bobbycapucci@protonmail.com



source:

New Mexico attorney general says DOJ is withholding 'critical' information related to Epstein's Zorro Ranch