On Wednesday, the state of New Mexico sued the U.S. Department of Justice, demanding access to unreleased materials concerning Jeffrey Epstein. The lawsuit alleges that the federal agency is obstructing the state’s investigation into the late sex offender by refusing to provide the necessary documents. Reuters reports, UNN writes.
Details
The lawsuit escalates the politically charged conflict surrounding the U.S. Department of Justice’s materials on Epstein — an issue that has become a problem for the Trump administration.
The Democratic-led state reopened its investigation into Epstein in February and requested unreleased files from the U.S. Department of Justice to identify visitors and employees of the Zorro Ranch estate near Stanley, New Mexico, who allegedly participated in the crimes or witnessed them.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it had provided some of the materials but was unable to turn over other documents because of privacy-protection requirements.
The federal government’s inaction not only delays the investigation but also prolongs and intensifies the suffering of the victims
The state is asking the U.S. District Court in Washington to order Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche to release the requested documents.
In response to the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Justice said that under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and court orders protecting information, it is neither required nor permitted to disclose data that could identify victims.
New Mexico has provided no legal basis for such broad disclosures of information
More than five months after the investigation began, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has still not announced any results.
During a conversation with journalists, Torrez said the state was allocating “significant” resources to the investigation but declined to provide further details.
We have not charged anyone because we need to see these files before bringing charges against anyone
Also on Wednesday, New Mexico lawmakers released an interim report on the so-called Truth Commission — an independent investigation into Epstein’s activities.
The report states that, at this point, there is evidence that from 1996 to 2012, Epstein abused at least five women and girls at Zorro Ranch. The commission also counted at least 30 other people in New Mexico who may have been victims. Some may have witnessed the abuse, others may have facilitated it, and some may have played both roles.
According to commission chair Andrea Romero, more than 100,000 documents were obtained from the first 20 subpoenas the commission sent to various institutions — from law enforcement agencies to a scientific institute in Santa Fe.
Seven subpoenas were rejected or went unanswered. Among them was a request to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for Epstein’s flight records, as well as a subpoena to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York concerning evidence that New Mexico investigators handed over to it in 2019 and that has still not been returned.
New Mexico authorities allege that the U.S. Department of Justice violated a 2019 agreement under which the state agreed to end its own investigation into Epstein and hand over evidence to the federal agency in exchange for continued information sharing about potential victims and crimes.
Torrez said the state investigation was facing significant obstacles, including the decades that had passed since Epstein’s alleged crimes, the disappearance of evidence after the ranch was sold in 2023, and potential jurisdictional issues in the event of possible prosecutions.
Bill Gates told Congress he saw no evidence of Epstein's crimes11.06.26, 03:17