CEDAR CREST, N.M. \u2013 New Mexico\u2019s attorney general sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, accusing it of blocking the state from investigating sex crimes at Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sprawling ranch near Santa Fe.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., said the department and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stonewalled New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez\u2019s criminal investigation into Epstein and others, taking steps that \u201cactively harms victims and undermines the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeking judicial intervention to force the federal government to turn over materials to New Mexico’s investigators was filed the same day that the state released a report saying \u201cthose directly responsible for protecting New Mexicans relied on others to do their job,\u201d including federal prosecutors in New York.<\/p>\n
The federal prosecutors, though, never prioritized New Mexicans, focusing instead on Epstein\u2019s misdeeds in New York, Palm Beach, Florida, and the Virgin Islands, while leaving Epstein\u2019s offenses in New Mexico unexamined,” the report said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, according to the Washington lawsuit, Torrez and his senior prosecutors \u201chave faced sustained resistance\u201d to the kind of information-sharing that had occurred in the past between state and federal investigators.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Justice Department said it was not releasing some information the state requested because federal court orders ban disclosing \u201cvictim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said protecting victim privacy remains a top priority, though the Justice Department “remains available to assist New Mexico\u2019s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit said the Justice Department and Blanche were hiding information about Epstein and his co-conspirators when New Mexico is one of the few jurisdictions that may still be able to hold Epstein’s associates accountable or \u201cprovide some sense of justice to survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video conference call with reporters, Torrez said his office has made 10 separate requests for key information and has been ignored or denied.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard repeatedly they will cooperate and what our team has experienced is anything but cooperation,\u201d Torrez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTodd Blanche today with a stroke of a pen could grant us the access that he claimed,\u201d Torrez said. \u201cInstead they have decided to stonewall, to obstruct and to frankly conceal for whatever reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019 after he was denied bail on sex trafficking charges lodged against him when he was arrested a month earlier.<\/p>\n
His former girlfriend and close associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence<\/a> after she was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking charges at a trial in Manhattan, where some of the witness testimony alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had sexually abused women at the New Mexico ranch.<\/p>\n Epstein purchased his sprawling estate in Stanley, New Mexico, a sparsely populated ranching community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe, in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a hilltop mansion with a private airstrip and helipad.<\/p>\n