New Mexico Sues the Justice Department for Withholding Epstein Records From Its Zorro Ranch Investigation

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued the Justice Department and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in federal court in the District of Columbia on Aug. 5, 2026, seeking unredacted Jeffrey Epstein investigative files that the state says it needs for its criminal investigation of Zorro Ranch, Epstein’s former 10,000-acre property south of Santa Fe. The complaint says the records could identify victims, witnesses and additional criminal conduct, and alleges that federal prosecutors asked New Mexico to stand down in 2019 with a promise of later information-sharing that never materialized. New Mexico reopened the investigation in February 2026 and conducted the first law-enforcement search of the ranch in March 2026. The suit asks the court to declare the department’s refusal unlawful and order production, or in the alternative to require reconsideration under the department’s own Touhy regulations governing release of records to outside parties. The Justice Department has cited protective orders from the Southern District of New York and victim-privacy limits, and disputes the state’s account of its cooperation.

The case tests whether a federal department can decline to share evidence with a state conducting its own criminal investigation of the same conduct, and it arrives after more than a year of disputes over the administration’s handling of the Epstein files. The competing accounts — stonewalling versus court-ordered confidentiality — have not been resolved by any court.

The suit was filed Aug. 5, 2026. No court has ruled.