New Mexico Department of Justice sues feds over Epstein files

The New Mexico Department of Justice on Wednesday announced a newly filed lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice and Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in order to gain access to un-redacted investigative files related to the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his time in the state.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in early July sent a  letter to USDOJ officials contending the federal agency has delayed release of multiple records related to the state’s criminal investigation of Epstein’s activities at his Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe.

Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, also in July, released a letter to Torrez in which he said federal officials had failed “to this day” to uphold an agreement to share New Mexico-related materials with the state’s top law enforcement agency.

Among other requests, the new lawsuit asks the court to order the federal agency to provide access to un-redacted Epstein files and other unreleased materials, or require USDOJ to reconsider the request under formal regulations known as a Touhy request.

“New Mexico has a duty to protect survivors and investigate crimes committed in our state so that perpetrators can be held accountable,” Torrez said in a statement. “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.” 

A USDOJ spokesperson, in response to a request for comment from Source NM, wrote that, “The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not require, and the protective orders in place in the Southern District of New York do not permit, disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures. Protecting victim privacy remains a top priority for the Department, and neither Touhy requests nor a desire to cooperate outweighs that privacy. DOJ remains available to assist New Mexico’s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.”

In a news conference Wednesday morning, following the announcement of the lawsuit, Torrez responded to that statement by saying “it appears that the United States Department of Justice is once again hiding behind an act of Congress that frankly doesn’t have anything to do with this request.” He elaborated by noting that the NMDOJ’s “request does not hinge on the Epstein Transparency Act. Our request is a routine request from a state law enforcement agency to a federal law enforcement counterpart.”

Acting U.S. Attorney General Blanche, Torrez said, “with a stroke of a pen, could grant us the access that he claims he is willing to engage with in terms of giving us the cooperation that we’ve asked for.” Instead, he added, “they have decided to stonewall, to obstruct, and to frankly conceal for whatever reason.”

Torrez told reporters that thus far the federal agency had made 31 pages available from the local U.S. Attorney’s Office “that included virtually nothing of of relevance or importance to the investigation,” even though, he said, the Epstein files reference Zorro Ranch more than 13,000 times.

Reviewing those references, he said, “there are entire pages that are blacked out, and names of specific individuals that are obscured. And it’s access to that information that will allow us to do the very difficult and very deliberate work of piecing together all the information that we need and evaluating whether or not there’s sufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal investigation.”

The longer Blanche “stonewalls and obstructs our access to the files, the longer that that process is delayed, and the longer we are delayed in trying to deliver justice to survivors,” Torrez said.