Former state AG reveals he got 'stand down' order from feds on Epstein ranch probe

A former New Mexico attorney general is speaking out about how federal prosecutors shut down his state investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's sprawling New Mexico ranch — a property where survivors allege rape, sex trafficking, forced births, and possibly worse.

Hector Balderas, a Democrat who served as New Mexico's attorney general from 2015 to 2023, told Scripps News he was deep into building a state case against Epstein in 2019 — and had just returned from interviewing a survivor — when the Southern District of New York called.

"They were concerned that we were getting parallel interviews from the same survivors they were going to use in an aggressive prosecution as well," Balderas said.

He paused the state probe, he said, after then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey promised the DOJ would share evidence and allow New Mexico to pursue state charges later. Neither happened. Federal investigators never executed a search warrant on the property.

"I think that they absolutely impacted our case, and I don't think that they were forthright, and I don't [think] they were operating in good faith," Balderas said.

Now he wishes he'd pressed on alone.

"We would have absolutely gone alone and bet on the case that we currently had at the time," he said.

The stakes couldn't be higher. At least 10 girls and young women have alleged they were groomed or assaulted at Zorro Ranch, Epstein's remote compound about 40 miles south of Santa Fe. Allegations tied to the property include rape, sexual assault of minors, forced births, and eugenics. An anonymous 2019 tip — which the FBI didn't enter into its system until 2021 — claimed the bodies of two foreign girls were buried on the grounds on orders from Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. That tip never reached Balderas' office.

"I'm very angry," Balderas said. "They didn't meet the standard of what a good prosecution team should be working and collaborating with other partners."

The ranch has never been searched by federal authorities, though New Mexico state investigators conducted their own search of the property in March. New Mexico reopened its criminal investigation this year after the DOJ released millions of Epstein-related files. A bipartisan legislative Truth Commission announced last week it is issuing 14 subpoenas targeting the Epstein estate, banks, and other entities tied to the late sex offender.

Balderas says the answers aren't in what's already been made public.

"I'm convinced that those answers are not in the documents that have been released," he said. "But they're in the millions of documents that are currently being withheld."