(José Niño, Headline USA) In September 2019, federal prosecutors asked New Mexico to shut down its active investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s desert compound. The state complied. The feds never held up their end of the deal.
According to a report by The Albuquerque Journal, former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas revealed recently that prosecutors from the Southern District of New York pressured his office to cease its probe into sex trafficking at Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, a 7,500 acre estate south of Santa Fe that Epstein purchased from former Governor Bruce King’s family in 1993.
The stated reason was that parallel investigations could produce conflicting witness statements that defense lawyers might exploit. In exchange, the feds promised to share their own findings. That promise was never fulfilled.
On September 8, 2019, assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, confirmed in an email that Balderas’s office had agreed to halt its work and turn over all materials, per a report by Time. Epstein had died in federal custody less than a month earlier. By September 17, New Mexico’s Chief Deputy Attorney General Clara Moran had sent police reports, recorded witness testimony, and documents about Epstein’s use of state lands to the SDNY.
By July 2020, having received nothing in return, Balderas sent a letter urging federal prosecutors to seize the ranch through civil forfeiture. “We believe that this ranch was utilized by Epstein and others to facilitate and conceal the ongoing trafficking of children,” the letter stated. The New York Times reported that he received no response. An internal federal email from December 2019 later confirmed that agents had “not searched the New Mexico property,” as the Times reported.
When the DOJ released over three million pages of Epstein files on January 30, 2026, none of New Mexico’s investigative records appeared among them, according to NPR.
The fallout has been swift. Reuters reported that Attorney General Raúl Torrez reopened the criminal investigation into Zorro Ranch on February 18. The state House unanimously created a bipartisan truth commission with subpoena power and a budget exceeding $2 million, per a report by the Albuquerque Journal. U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, who has reviewed unredacted federal files, confirmed that multiple prominent New Mexicans are named in the investigation. Separately, Reuters New Mexico is now probing allegations from a redacted email claiming two foreign girls who died at the ranch were buried nearby at Epstein’s direction.
Comey, the prosecutor who brokered the original deal, was fired by the Trump DOJ in July 2025 without explanation. The ranch itself was sold in 2023 to a Texas developer planning to convert it into a Christian retreat.
“The inquiry should have been expanded, not restricted,” Balderas said.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
