Former New Mexico AG says he was told to stand down in Epstein ranch probe [View all]
Source: Scripps News
Posted 10:48 AM, Jun 08, 2026
On desolate dry land, about 40 miles south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, sits a sprawling estate — mostly ignored by people passing by on the nearby highway. The property, in the town of Stanley, is notorious for its former owner, the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who bought the property in 1993. Now, the estate, known as Zorro Ranch, is back in the spotlight as state lawmakers probe Epstein’s alleged crimes at the home, what investigators may have missed and what federal authorities may have withheld.
The word “Zorro” appears nearly 14,000 times in files connected to Epstein released by the Department of Justice, but the land has never been searched by federal authorities, and unredacted files have not been turned over to the New Mexico Department of Justice for its ongoing investigation. Federal investigators told New Mexico attorney general to stand down.
Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas first started looking into Epstein and the Zorro Ranch in 2019. Allegations of crimes committed at the property include rape, sexual assault of minors, forced births and eugenics, according to accounts from Epstein survivors, their diary entries, and from the millions of files released by the Department of Justice. Months before Epstein was arrested in 2019, Balderas says he was well into building a state case and had just returned from interviewing an Epstein survivor when he received a call from the Southern District of New York.
"They were concerned that we were getting parallel interviews from the same survivors they were going to use in an aggressive prosecution as well,” Balderas told the Scripps News Group in April. Balderas paused the state probe, saying federal officials had “the bigger hammer at the time.” In exchange, he says he was promised by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen Comey that the DOJ would share evidence about the case and allow Balderas to pursue state charges down the road. That never happened and federal investigators never executed a search warrant on the property.
Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/crime/epstein-files/former-new-mexico-ag-says-he-was-told-to-stand-down-in-epstein-ranch-probe
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