New Mexico is about to dig deeply into what, exactly, happened at Jeffrey Epstein's remote Zorro Ranch. State lawmakers on Monday unanimously approved a $2.5 million "truth commission" billed as the first comprehensive inquiry into alleged trafficking and sexual abuse at the 7,600-acre property, about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, Reuters reports. The four-member bipartisan panel will have subpoena power and is expected to hear from survivors, local residents, and anyone with knowledge of activities at the ranch, where Epstein allegedly abused girls and women for years but was never charged in connection with the site.
The commission will look at who visited the ranch and which officials may have known about, enabled, or participated in abuse, with interim findings due in July and a final report by the end of the year. Lawmakers say they also want to identify gaps in state law that may have allowed Epstein to operate freely in New Mexico. "He was basically doing anything he wanted in this state without any accountability whatsoever," said Democratic state Rep. Andrea Romero, who co-sponsored the measure, adding that testimony could be used in future prosecutions. While the statute of limitations may have passed in some cases, Romero tells Axios it's possible state legislation could be changed "to help survivors see justice."
The move follows the US Justice Department's recent release of millions of pages of Epstein-related records, which reference visits to Zorro Ranch and link Epstein to two former Democratic governors and a former attorney general of New Mexico. Epstein bought the ranch in 1993 from former Gov. Bruce King and used it over decades, flying in guests and "masseuses," according to an FBI interview with the ranch manager cited in the newly surfaced files. One of Epstein's most prominent accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, said in a deposition and memoir that she was repeatedly abused at the ranch and alleged that Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell instructed her to give former Gov. Bill Richardson a "massage," which she has described as code for a sexual encounter; Richardson has denied the claim as "completely false."
The current owner of the ranch is Texas businessman and politician Donald Huffines, a Trump-aligned Republican who bought it privately through an LLC at public auction in 2023, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports. Following the outlet's publicizing of the new ownership, which had not been previously reported, Huffines announced he plans to turn the property into a Christian retreat center, the outlet reports.
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