New Mexico filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Department of Justice and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, accusing them of obstructing the state's criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's activities at his remote ranch near Santa Fe.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez reopened the probe in February after newly released federal files contained thousands of references to Zorro Ranch, the 10,000-acre property Epstein owned from 1993 until his death in 2019. Torrez gave the Justice Department a July 31 deadline to share unredacted materials, but said the state received mostly old news clippings and heavily redacted pages. The Justice Department cited federal court orders barring victim-identifying disclosures as the reason for withholding certain records.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks to compel the release of investigative materials. Blanche, a former private attorney for President Donald Trump, assumed the acting attorney general role after Trump dismissed Pam Bondi in April. The ranch was sold in 2023 to Don Huffines, a former Texas state senator.