New Mexico is suing the Department of Justice and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for actively blocking the state's criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's activities at his remote Zorro Ranch — and the stonewalling tells ordinary Americans everything they need to know about who federal power really protects.
When a state attorney general can't get straight answers from Washington about a dead sex offender's co-conspirators, the revolving door between federal authority and accountability slams shut on victims and the public alike.
New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez filed suit Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., after the DOJ ignored a July 31 deadline to share records about alleged abuse of girls and young women at Epstein's 10,000-acre ranch about 30 miles south of Santa Fe. Torrez had warned Blanche in a July 14 letter that he would "pursue all available legal remedies without further notice" if the deadline passed. It passed. The DOJ didn't budge.
The complaint alleges Blanche and his department "stonewalled" the state investigation Torrez reopened in February, after the Zorro property was mentioned thousands of times in releases of the so-called Epstein files — disclosures compelled by a transparency act signed by President Trump in November.
Here's where the federal shell game gets ugly. The U.S. Attorney's office for the district of New Mexico claimed it had "substantively responded" to Torrez's request on June 30 by emailing 31 documents. Torrez says those papers were mostly old news clippings and heavily redacted pages of little use to investigators. The DOJ also insisted information requests be formal, then rejected them after they were made, according to the lawsuit.
This isn't the first time federal prosecutors shut the door on New Mexico. Torrez's predecessor, Hector Balderas, opened an investigation in February 2019 — only to mothball it at the request of federal prosecutors at the Southern District of New York, which was running its own Epstein probe. Those same prosecutors told Torrez last month they "will not cooperate" in the state's current investigation.
NBC News framed the dispute as a procedural clash over information-sharing. The Guardian noted that Democrats and critics have accused Blanche of covering up files — a detail NBC omitted entirely. Both outlets agree on the core facts: the feds are withholding records, and New Mexico is one of the few jurisdictions that can still hold Epstein's associates accountable.
The Zorro Ranch is unique among Epstein's properties. Unlike his Palm Beach estate, New York mansion, and Caribbean island, it never saw a confirmed federal search. Numerous photographs of men and young girls at the ranch appeared in the latest Epstein files release, and survivors have testified to sexual and physical abuse there by Epstein and others.
Epstein bought the ranch in 1993 from the estate of Bruce King, New Mexico's Democratic former governor. The property was sold by Epstein's estate in 2023 to the family of Don Huffines, a Republican recently appointed state comptroller in Texas, who said the family plans to operate a Christian retreat there.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare that Blanche and the DOJ acted illegally and to order compliance with both the Epstein transparency law and federal Touhy regulations governing document requests during litigation.
The DOJ did not return a request for comment.
The question isn't whether the feds have something to hide — it's why they're allowed to hide it, and who benefits when they do.
