Lawmakers in the US state of New Mexico on February 17 launched an investigation into events at Jeffrey Epsteinʼs former residence — the Zorro Ranch — amid allegations that Epstein engaged in human trafficking and sexual abuse of girls and women there.
This was reported to Axios by state House of Representatives member Andrea Romero.
Epstein owned the ranch from 1993 until his death in 2019. There, he built a vast estate spanning more than 7 600 acres. The ranch is mentioned many times in the “Epstein files” released by the US Department of Justice.
Epstein plaintiff Annie Farmer said during Ghislaine Maxwellʼs 2021 trial that she was molested at this ranch when she was sixteen.
A so-called Truth Commission plans to interview victims who were harmed at the ranch. Romero promised that the committee would publicly name the suspected perpetrators.
One of the committeeʼs tasks will be to gather information that can be used in court. Romero noted that in some cases, statutes of limitations may have expired, but lawmakers are already considering changes to the law to help victims get justice.
The New Mexico Department of Justice last week sent the US Department of Justice a request for unencrypted access to an anonymous 2019 letter that claimed two “foreign girls” were buried at the ranch.
The family of former Texas Senator Don Huffines, who now owns the ranch, told local media that they would fully cooperate with New Mexico officials if they wanted to conduct a search.
Jeffrey Epsteinʼs case
American financier Jeffrey Epstein was first arrested in 2008. He was convicted of sex with minors and organizing prostitution. After 13 months in prison, the financier made a deal with prosecutors and was released. In 2019, he was charged with new charges of human trafficking.
At the time, it was reported that FBI had discovered thousands of names of famous people in Epsteinʼs notebook, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “Rolling Stones” frontman Mick Jagger, and billionaire Richard Branson. This sparked a series of accusations and suspicions against famous people that they may have used Epsteinʼs services.
Epstein was arrested a second time on July 7, and on August 10, 2019, he committed suicide in prison. In December 2023, a US court ordered the release of the names of more than 170 people from Epsteinʼs inner circle.
Donald Trump has also been accused of having ties to Epstein. Trump and Epstein were allegedly friends and attended the same parties in the 1990s. However, Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against journalists who covered this information.
In November, it became known that dozens of references to Ukraine were found among Jeffrey Epsteinʼs documents. Among other things, the names of politician Oleksandr Vilkul and former President Leonid Kuchma appear there.
On December 19, the US Department of Justice released the first selection of the “Epstein files”. Among the tens of thousands of documents that were censored are many photos of famous people. Less than a day after the publication, at least 16 files related to Epstein disappeared from the US Department of Justice website. Among them was a photo with Trump.
The US Department of Justice published a new set of documents on January 30. They found information that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection after communicating with "Russian girls", and that Epstein helped him purchase medication.
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