New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez released a letter accusing the federal Justice Department (USDOJ) of deliberately obstructing the state investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Torrez shared his letter dated June 30 with the public on Thursday, sharply criticizing the federal government's failure to cooperate.
The Democratic Attorney General noted in the letter that all record requests made to the Justice Department since February have gone unanswered. "Despite receiving verbal assurances of cooperation from the USDOJ, access to the requested records has not been granted, no substantive response has been provided, and more than 130 days have passed," he stated.
New Mexico had reopened the investigation in February after the federal government released millions of files related to Epstein. Some of the released documents pertained to Epstein's activities at the Zorro Ranch in central New Mexico dating back to 1993.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 in Florida of soliciting a minor for prostitution and served only 13 months. When he died in 2019, he was awaiting federal trial on charges of running a sex trafficking network believed to have hundreds of victims.
The handling of the Epstein files during the Trump administration sparked controversy. Former President Donald Trump, who initially opposed the release, later supported it and signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The first documents were made available online on December 19, and millions of files at the end of January; however, many were heavily redacted and the identities of some victims were exposed.
Torrez said his office had identified numerous redacted files for which it requested full access, but the Justice Department had not complied with that records request. "Every day the USDOJ withholds these records, the foundation for building a prosecution in New Mexico erodes," he wrote. "Witnesses relocate and become unreachable. Already strained by years of trauma, memories fade further. Physical and documentary evidence deteriorates, disappears, or becomes harder to verify over time."
The Justice Department, however, denied the accusations that it was obstructing Torrez's investigation and stated that it was ready to assist.
According to the released Epstein files, in 2019 a conservative radio host, Edward Aragon, reported to the FBI's Albuquerque office that he had received a tip about abuse at Zorro Ranch. An FBI form showed that the whistleblower offered Aragon "7 videos of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and the location of two foreign girls buried at Zorro Ranch in exchange for one bitcoin."
The New York Times also published an article in 2019 suggesting that Epstein planned to use the ranch to impregnate multiple women in order to spread his DNA.
New Mexico was the first state to create a bipartisan "truth commission" in February to investigate Epstein's crimes. The commission is expected to deliver its report by the end of the year. Siblings of Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre also protested outside the ranch earlier this year. Giuffre took her own life in April 2025.
