DOJ Has Been Hobbling New Mexico’s Epstein Ranch Investigation For Years, Former AG Says
New Mexico’s former attorney general is taking the Justice Department to task for slowing down his state’s renewed probe into Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that the federal government “burned” his office in its investigation of the property.
Federal investigators made an informal deal with the New Mexico Department of Justice (NMDOJ) to provide evidence for New Mexico’s investigation into Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas told the DCNF. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) failed to follow through on its informal agreement made on July 23, 2019, with the NMDOJ to refer any state-related matters of the Epstein investigation back to the NMDOJ, Balderas told the DCNF in an exclusive interview.
Balderas, who left office as New Mexico attorney general on Jan. 1, 2023, corroborated his statement by citing a newly discovered handwritten note and an email from James Comey’s daughter released with other Epstein files earlier this year.
Balderas sent a letter on Monday to the current New Mexico Attorney General calling out the “SDNY, and by proxy the U.S. DOJ” for their role in what he alleged was a direct impediment to his office’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico.
It remains unclear exactly who wrote the July 2019 note, but Balderas believes it came from either a staff member or legal assistant in the New York office.
“Agreed NMDOJ will stop interviews + refer all matters to SDNY. SDNY will refer any state-related matters to NMAG @ [the] conclusion of SDNY case,” the handwritten note says. (Read more from “DOJ Has Been Hobbling New Mexico’s Epstein Ranch Investigation For Years, Former AG Says” HERE)
