New Mexico approves truth commission on alleged Jeffrey Epstein ranch abuse

New Mexico has approved a “truth commission” to investigate abuse on Jeffrey Epstein’s ranch outside Santa Fe, amid ongoing calls for transparency about the late sex-offender’s crimes.The move by legislators on Monday follows the justice department’s release of millions of investigative documents into Epstein last month, which has renewed interest into the financier’s Zorro ranch.Multiple women and girls have said they were sexually abused on the roughly 10,000-acre (4,000-hectare) property.Law enforcement has paid little attention to activities there, however. Authorities have raided Epstein’s other properties – including his New York townhouse, Caribbean island, Palm Beach mansion and Paris apartment – but multiple state and local officials have said they were not aware of any federal search at the ranch.Hector Balderas, who served as New Mexico’s attorney general at the time of Epstein’s July 2019 arrest, said in a statement that his office “investigated activity that occurred in New Mexico that was still viable for prosecution, including contact with multiple victims”.Balderas said his office backed off after federal prosecutors in New York handling the Epstein investigation “asked that we hold any further state investigation or prosecution of activity related to Epstein, as they communicated to us that they were already leading an active multi-jurisdictional prosecution”.Emails released by the justice department in late January also state that Balderas’ office “agreed to cease any investigation into sex trafficking and share whatever they had gathered regarding sex trafficking activity with our office”.A December 2019 email from a prosecutor to the co-executor of Epstein’s estate stated that federal agents had “not searched the New Mexico property”. There also do not appear to have been any state or local law enforcement investigations into what happened on Epstein’s property.Andrea Romero, a Democratic New Mexico state House representative who sponsored the truth commission legislation, said the committee will deploy subpoena power and testimony, as well as official records, “to put the whole story together”, Source NM reported.The subcommittee, which must have four representatives from both major political parties, is expected to have a $2m budget and run through 2026.New Mexico residents “deserve to know the truth about what went on at the Zorro Ranch and who knew about it”, Romero said.The commission is funded by a settlement between the New Mexico attorney general and Deutsche Bank during an investigation of financial institutions’ role “in failing to identify the sexual abuse and trafficking of underage girls at Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch”.The announcement is among the latest steps that lawmakers have taken to understand how Epstein abused teen girls allegedly for years with near-impunity. The federal Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed in November, mandating that the justice department release all files related to him.Trump, who once counted Epstein among his friends, only signed the act into law after political blowback for his administration’s handling of the files. He promised during his 2024 presidential campaign to release the files, but then attempted to avoid doing so while repeatedly calling the Epstein controversy a hoax.