New Mexico panel seeks Epstein documents, probes possible prosecutions

New Mexico lawmakers took the first major step in their Epstein inquiry by preparing subpoenas for 14 government and private entities, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and the Santa Fe Institute. The bipartisan, four-member New Mexico Truth Commission said the records push was designed to build a complete documented public record and to determine whether any evidence supports criminal referrals in New Mexico or elsewhere.

The panel’s focus is as much on institutional failure as on Epstein’s conduct. Federal investigations centered on Florida and New York, but no federal probe was ever launched in New Mexico, even as at least 10 women said Epstein groomed or abused them at Zorro Ranch beginning in the mid-1990s. Lawmakers want to know who knew what, which agencies or private institutions may have withheld information, and why the record in New Mexico remains incomplete.

At its inaugural meeting, the commission heard from survivor Rachel Benavidez and from family members of Virginia Giuffre, who said she had repeatedly described abuse at the ranch. The family argued that when a survivor believes the federal government failed them, the state should step in and conduct its own investigation. Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025, according to the family testimony heard by the panel.

The subpoenas are expected to reach state and local agencies that handled pieces of the case, including the New Mexico Department of Justice, the New Mexico State Land Commission and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, along with federal law enforcement, banks and the Santa Fe Institute. The commission has also been working alongside the New Mexico Department of Justice, which reopened a criminal investigation that had been shut down in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York.

Epstein bought the 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch from former New Mexico Gov. Bruce King in 1993, and the property included its own airstrip and helipad. Former Attorney General Hector Balderas’s criminal investigation in 2019 closed within the year without charges, leaving unanswered questions that the current panel is now trying to resolve through subpoenas, public records and testimony.

The commission is operating under a budget of $2 million from a 2023 settlement tied to Attorney General Raúl Torrez and several financial services companies. It must deliver an interim report by July 31 and a final report later in 2026, a tight timeline for a panel that is trying to move beyond symbolism and produce new facts, not just another political accounting.