New Mexico sues US Justice Department for impeding Epstein probe

Published 5 August 2026 · politics

The southwestern US state’s attorney general argues that the federal government is withholding key unredacted documents. New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against the United

The southwestern US state’s attorney general argues that the federal government is withholding key unredacted documents. New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Justice and its leader, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, accusing the nation’s top law enforcement agency of “stonewalling” the state’s investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In Wednesday’s court filing, New Mexico’s Attorney General Raul Torrez once again accused the Department of Justice of unlawfully withholding unredacted materials. Those materials, he argued, are critical to the state’s investigations into Epstein’s activities at the Zorro Ranch, a sprawling property the late financier once owned in New Mexico. “We asked the Department of Justice to cooperate by providing access to records that may be critical to identifying victims, witnesses, and additional criminal conduct at Zorro Ranch,” Torrez said in a press release. “Their delay is actively hurting our criminal investigation and delaying justice Epstein survivors deserve.” Escalating tensions The lawsuit escalates a feud between Torrez, a Democrat, and the Republican administration of US President Donald Trump. Their spat has been building for months. In early July, Torrez released a letter he sent to the Justice Department the previous month, expressing frustration that, despite “verbal assurances of cooperation”, the federal government had failed to provide access to the relevant documents. The Department of Justice, meanwhile, has argued that privacy law prevents it from providing state officials with unredacted documents from its Epstein file. “To capitulate to their demands would be to break federal law.

Is that what the [New Mexico Attorney General] is suggesting?” the department said in a statement last month. Questions about Epstein’s activities at the Zorro Ranch stretch back years. He owned the ranch from 1993 until his death in 2019. During that time, the wealthy financier was accused of orchestrating a se trafficking ring whose victims are thought to number in the hundreds. Survivors like the late Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in 2025, have warned that crimes took place at the Zorro Ranch. A conservative talk show host also approached the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after he said he received an anonymous tip about sexual abuse on the site, as well as “the location of two foreign girls buried on Zorro Ranch”. That tip has yet to be corroborated. Investigation paused New Mexico had first opened an investigation into the ranch in February 2019. But by July of that year, the Department of Justice had asked New Mexico to stand down and transfer any information it gathered to federal authorities. At the time, the Justice Department was pursuing its own investigation into Epstein, and it arrested him on charges of trafficking minors for sex and engaging in a conspiracy to commit such sex trafficking. Later that month, while awaiting trial in a New York City jail cell, Epstein was found dead, in an incident that was ruled a suicide. From then on, Torrez said the investigation into Zorro Ranch languished. The vast property was sold in August 2023, and it is currently owned by businessman Don Huffines, a former member of the Texas Senate.