New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez publicly released a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who on Thursday accused the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of withholding unredacted copies of documents relevant to the New Mexico investigation into Zorro Ranch, owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
New Mexico reopened launched its investigation into possible sex trafficking at the ranch in February, but Torrez has not yet announced any findings. In the letter, he summarized a number of unfulfilled document requests made under the law Epstein Files Transparency Actsome are from February. Torres wrote:
The USDOJ’s continued withholding of unredacted records is causing real and increasing harm to the NMDOJ’s criminal investigations. With every day that the USDOJ withholds these records, the foundation upon which a prosecution in New Mexico could be built diminishes. Witnesses move and are unreachable. Memories that are already burdened by years of trauma fade even more. Physical and documentary evidence deteriorates, is lost, or becomes more difficult to authenticate over time…it has now been more than 130 days since the NMDOJ’s initial request. The NMDOJ considers this period to be an unreasonable delay under any rule of reason.
A DOJ spokesman replied“The DOJ reiterates that it welcomes New Mexico’s … investigation into Zorro Ranch and stands ready to provide … assistance with the investigation in New Mexico. Should these investigations uncover potential federal crimes, the DOJ will work closely with our law enforcement partners to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute.”
After Conservative talk show host Edward Aragon brought a tip to the FBI office in Albuquerque in 2019 about one of the published Epstein files. The tipster offered Aragon “7 videos of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and the whereabouts of two foreign girls buried at Zorro Ranch for sale for one Bitcoin.” In the same year The New York Times published an article claiming that Epstein planned to impregnate several women at his Zorro Ranch.
