Federal prosecutors investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “to this day” have not upheld an agreement to share New Mexico-related materials with the state’s top law enforcement agency, former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas wrote in a Monday letter to Attorney General Raúl Torrez.
Balderas’ letter says that his office was conducting an investigation into Epstein and his Santa Fe County property, Zorro Ranch, in 2019 when they learned of a broader federal investigation into Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
He wrote that his office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York subsequently came to an agreement weeks before Epstein’s suicide – Balderas’ investigators would stop interviewing potential witnesses, and the federal prosecutors would refer state-related matters to the New Mexico attorney general’s office at the end of their case.
“The agreement with the SDNY prosecutors was not to simply stop or to stay out of their way. Instead, my administration had a firm agreement with the SDNY that they have not honored to this day,” Balderas wrote to Torrez Monday, adding that partially redacted files released under the federal Epstein Files Transparency Act contain handwritten notes confirming the details of the arrangement.
Balderas’ letter comes weeks after Torrez accused the federal government of impeding his agency’s investigation into Zorro Ranch. He has contended that the U.S. Department of Justice has delayed the release of relevant records that contain names of witnesses, abuse survivors and co-conspirators that his agency needs if it is to fully investigate and prosecute any criminal matters.
“Former Attorney General Balderas has confirmed something we’ve said all along: New Mexico honored its side of an agreement with the federal government, and the federal government did not honor its own,” Torrez said in a statement Tuesday. “That breach doesn’t weaken our position, it strengthens it. New Mexico is entitled to these records, and we will use every tool available, including litigation, to obtain them.”
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