New Mexico lawmakers on Monday (February 16, 2026) handed laws to launch what they mentioned was the primary full investigation into what occurred at Zorro Ranch, the place the late U.S. intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein is accused of trafficking and sexually assaulting women and girls.
A bipartisan committee will search testimony from survivors of alleged sexual abuse on the ranch, positioned about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, the State capital. Legislators are additionally urging native residents to testify.
Epstein died in what was dominated a suicide in a New York jail in 2019 whereas dealing with federal intercourse trafficking expenses.
The so-called fact fee, comprising 4 lawmakers, seeks to determine ranch company and state officers who could have identified what was happening on the 7,600-acre property, or taken half in alleged sexual abuse in its hacienda-style mansion and visitor homes.
The Democratic-led investigation provides to political stress to uncover Epstein’s crimes that has turn into a significant problem for President Donald Trump, weeks after the Justice Division launched tens of millions of Epstein-related recordsdata that shed new gentle on actions on the ranch.
The recordsdata reveal ties between Epstein and two former Democratic governors and an lawyer basic of New Mexico.
The laws, which handed New Mexico’s Home of Representatives by a unanimous vote, may pose dangers to any further politicians linked to Epstein within the Democratic-run state, in addition to scientists, buyers and different high-profile people who visited the ranch.
The $2.5 million investigation, which has subpoena energy, goals to shut gaps in New Mexico legislation which will have allowed Epstein to function within the State. The committee begins work on Tuesday (February 17, 2027), and can ship interim findings in July and a last report by year-end.
“He was mainly doing something he needed on this state with none accountability in any way,” mentioned New Mexico state Consultant Andrea Romero, a Democrat, who co-sponsored the initiative.
Testimony to the committee may very well be used for future prosecutions, she mentioned.
Sufferer advocates applauded the transfer, saying Zorro Ranch had been ignored by federal investigations that targeted on Epstein’s Caribbean island and New York townhouse.
“Most of the survivors had experiences in New Mexico, and as we’ve discovered, you recognize, there have been native politicians and different those who have been conscious of what was occurring in New Mexico,” mentioned lawyer Sigrid McCawley, whose legislation agency has represented a whole lot of Epstein survivors.
They embody the late Virginia Giuffre, who was abused many occasions on the ranch, she mentioned.
The U.S. Division of Justice handed a request for remark to the FBI. The FBI declined remark.
Additionally learn | Big cache of Epstein recordsdata contains emails financier exchanged with rich, highly effective
Epstein operated on the ranch for many years
A number of civil fits accuse Epstein of sexually assaulting women at Zorro Ranch. He was by no means charged for the alleged offenses.
Mr. Romero mentioned there was no document of federal legislation enforcement looking what was identified regionally as “the playboy ranch” the place Epstein is accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old woman as early as 1996.
Former New Mexico Legal professional Basic Hector Balderas launched a probe in 2019 that was placed on maintain at the request of federal prosecutors to keep away from “parallel investigation,” he mentioned in a press release.
New Mexico Legal professional Basic Raul Torrez has assigned a particular agent to probe allegations which will come by the reality fee, spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez mentioned.
Democratic State Consultant Marianna Anaya, an advocate for sexual assault survivors who co-sponsored the laws, is engaged on accompanying laws to increase New Mexico’s statute of limitations for childhood sexual assault that might enable civil actions by survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuse.
Epstein purchased the ranch in 1993 from Bruce King, a three-time New Mexico Democratic governor who died in 2009.
The financier flew in company and “masseuses,” and employed native therapeutic massage therapists to work there, ranch supervisor Brice Gordon advised the FBI in 2007, based on a report within the Epstein recordsdata.
In an unsealed 2016 courtroom deposition, Giuffre testified Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell advised her to present the late former New Mexico Governor Invoice Richardson a “therapeutic massage” on the ranch. In Giuffre’s memoir, she mentioned an instruction from Maxwell to offer a “therapeutic massage” meant a sufferer ought to present a sexual encounter to an abuser.
Richardson’s consultant Madeleine Mahoney in a 2019 assertion mentioned Giuffre’s allegations have been “utterly false.”
Gordon advised the FBI that a lot of the masseuses Epstein used on the ranch have been employed regionally by the spa Ten Thousand Waves, a Santa Fe establishment, or by referrals.
Spa spokesperson Sara Bean mentioned in a cellphone interview final Tuesday that Ten Thousand Waves neither offered nor referred masseuses to Zorro Ranch.
Within the documentary “Surviving Jeffrey Epstein,” former Santa Fe therapeutic massage therapist Rachel Benavidez accused Epstein of sexual abuse when she was employed to work on the ranch.
Funding advisor Joshua Ramo mentioned on Sunday (February 15, 2026) he visited the ranch as soon as for a 2014 lunch on behalf of professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise and Harvard College, who have been current. Mr. Ramo, on the time CEO of consulting agency Kissinger Associates, mentioned he and Epstein met with enterprise figures and scientists round 14 occasions in New York between 2013 and 2016.
“I deferred to the due diligence of the establishments concerned, assuming that his presence signaled he had been appropriately vetted,” Mr. Ramo, in a press release, mentioned of the ranch go to. “I really feel a deep sense of grief for the survivors of his crimes.”
Emails present Epstein contacted Mr. Ramo in 2015 to inform him he was going to Ten Thousand Waves, suggesting they meet for lunch in Santa Fe. Mr. Ramo responded, “I assumed we have been assembly on the pink backside ranch.” Ramo, who’s at the moment CEO of consulting agency Sornay LLC, mentioned he had no recollection of that remark, or whether or not the 2 met that day.
Over time, Epstein contributed to the political campaigns of New Mexico Democrats reminiscent of Richardson and King’s son Gary King, a former New Mexico lawyer basic. When contributions have been reported within the press, the boys pledged to both return the cash, or give it to charity.
Gary King flew on a airplane chartered by Epstein when he was working for New Mexico governor in 2014, based on emails within the Epstein recordsdata. Epstein mentioned he would cowl round half the price of the $22,000 constitution and King would pay the remaining. King didn’t reply to a request for remark.