New Mexico has had enough of the federal runaround on Jeffrey Epstein’s secrets. On Wednesday the state’s attorney general hauled the Justice Department and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche into federal court, demanding the full, unredacted files that could finally expose what really happened at the predator’s sprawling Zorro Ranch.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the 40-page complaint in Washington, accusing the DOJ of “stonewalling” a legitimate state criminal investigation into trafficking, abuse, and worse on New Mexico soil.
Publicly released Epstein material already contains more than 13,000 references to Zorro Ranch and roughly 5,000 to the state itself. Torrez says the redactions are blocking the identification of victims, witnesses, staff, and members of Epstein’s inner circle who may still face state charges.
New Mexico sued the Trump administration on Wednesday to obtain unredacted access to the Jeffrey Epstein files that have not been publicly disclosed as part of its criminal investigation into Epstein’s former Zorro Ranch.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 5, 2026
“All we have received from the Department of Justice,… pic.twitter.com/tP5gzpzuso
“New Mexico has a duty to protect survivors and investigate crimes committed in our state so that perpetrators can be held accountable,” Torrez said.
He continued, “We asked the Department of Justice to cooperate by providing access to records that may be critical to identifying victims, witnesses, and additional criminal conduct at Zorro Ranch. Their delay is actively hurting our criminal investigation and delaying justice Epstein survivors deserve.”
The lawsuit claims New Mexico is one of the few jurisdictions still positioned to deliver any justice. Federal prosecutors never even searched the ranch. Now the state is trying to finish the job and is being blocked at every turn.
Torrez told reporters his office has made at least ten formal requests since reopening the probe in February. Informal outreach was met with promises of cooperation, then instructions to file Touhy requests—only for those to be rejected. A July 14 letter warned that legal action would follow if the materials were not produced by July 31. They were not.
“We haven’t charged someone because we need to see those files before we charge someone,” Torrez stated.
The complaint argues the refusal violates the Administrative Procedure Act and interferes with New Mexico’s sovereign authority to investigate crimes inside its borders. Among the specific items sought is a document alleging the burial of two female victims on land surrounding the ranch, plus records naming visitors, staff, and alleged participants or witnesses.
A DOJ spokesperson pushed back, saying neither the Epstein Files Transparency Act signed by President Trump nor existing protective orders in the Southern District of New York permit “disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche,” and that New Mexico has offered “no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures.” Victim privacy, the department insists, remains the priority.
Truth about mind-boggling claims Jeffrey Epstein used Zorro Ranch in scheme to inseminate scores of women and produce genetically superior children revealed in New Mexico investigation https://t.co/mW6swq8zHn
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 6, 2026
This latest clash is the culmination of years of federal interference that began long before the current administration. Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has publicly detailed how, in 2019, federal prosecutors pressured his office to stand down.
New Mexico halted interviews, shared evidence with the Southern District of New York, and received assurances that state-related materials would be returned once the federal case concluded. Epstein died in custody. The materials never came back. Some of the state’s work was even used in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sentencing, yet nothing was returned.
Balderas has described the episode bluntly: the feds “burned” him, and he believes the same pattern is now being applied to Torrez. He has offered to testify if the state presses the issue on states’ rights grounds.
The ranch itself has long been the subject of some of the darkest allegations in the entire Epstein saga. In February, New Mexico lawmakers launched a bipartisan truth commission with subpoena power and funding after an email in the released files claimed a former staffer reported that “somewhere in the hills outside Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G.”
By March, state agents, local police, and the sheriff’s office were on the ground searching the 7,500-acre property—now under new ownership and renamed—for those alleged remains. The new owner has cooperated fully.
Beyond the burial claims, the files and survivor accounts have revived Epstein’s bizarre eugenics fixation. The ranch was allegedly envisioned as a base where women would be impregnated with his DNA to “seed” humanity with a superior bloodline. Reports of medical experimentation, organ harvesting, and forced procedures have circulated for years.
One particularly grim detail from the released files shows Epstein directing a doctor to stitch up a woman’s severe forehead gash—suffered in an ATV accident—while she was laid out on his dining room table. Thirty-five stitches were applied outside any hospital setting. The episode underscores the level of control Epstein exercised over the bodies of the women around him.
New Mexico’s lawsuit makes clear that redacted public dumps are not enough. Investigators need the unredacted names, dates, and connections if they are ever to build prosecutable cases against anyone still alive who participated in or enabled crimes on New Mexico soil.
Every day of delay, the state argues, erodes the foundation for justice.
The federal government once demanded the state step aside and promised cooperation in return. That cooperation never materialized. Now a Democratic attorney general is forced to sue a Republican administration to obtain records that could finally let a state finish the investigation the feds abandoned.
Survivors of Epstein’s network have waited long enough. The files should not remain locked away behind bureaucratic excuses while the statute of limitations and fading memories do the rest of the work.
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.
More news on our radar