New Mexico truth commission issues 14 Zorro (Jun 2026)

The New Mexico Survivors Truth Commission held its first public hearing on June 1, 2026, and immediately used its subpoena authority, issuing 14 institutional subpoenas and hearing testimony from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged abuse at Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico.

The commission is a bipartisan four-member investigatory subcommittee of the New Mexico House of Representatives, established by House Joint Resolution 1, which passed the chamber 62-to-0 on February 16, 2026. House Speaker Javier Martínez appointed the four members. The commission runs through the end of 2026, with a first report due July 31.

The 14 subpoenas approved at the June 1 hearing target a mix of federal agencies, state offices, private banks, and one nonprofit research institution. Federal targets include the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the office that originally prosecuted Epstein.

State targets include the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, the New Mexico Department of Justice, the New Mexico Governor's Office, and the New Mexico State Land Office. Local targets include the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department. Private targets include Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, and the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit scientific research center. No individuals were subpoenaed in this first round.

The commission's subpoena to the Santa Fe Institute seeks records about Epstein's donations, which research he funded, and whether anyone affiliated with the institute knew about or participated in criminal activity at the ranch. Financial records show Epstein donated at least $680,000 to the institute, though the institute publicly acknowledges only $275,000. His closest relationship appears to have been with co-founder Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose research Epstein directly funded, including a $25,000 payment in 2010 that came two years after the institute said it had cut off contact with him.

Rachel Benavidez, a New Mexico woman who says Epstein sexually abused her after she was hired as a massage therapist at his ranch in the late 1990s, testified at the June 1 hearing. She is among at least 10 girls and young women who have alleged they were groomed or assaulted at Zorro Ranch.

She and others say they were lured by promises of money or career advancement, then found themselves trapped on the 7,500-acre property, miles from any neighbor, where they were groped, forced into nude massages, and assaulted. At the hearing, Benavidez said: 'We deserve answers, we deserve the truth, we deserve transparency, justice and accountability.' The brother and sister-in-law of the late Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April 2025 after years of advocacy, also testified.

The commission's inquiry runs parallel to a criminal investigation reopened by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in February 2026. Torrez cited 'revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files' to justify reopening a probe the state had closed in 2019 at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

On March 10, 2026, state investigators searched Zorro Ranch, the first law enforcement action at the property since Epstein's death in a New York jail in August 2019. State police brought search-and-rescue dogs and canvassed the property. A March 2026 protest drew hundreds of demonstrators to the ranch gates.

The FBI files that triggered the state's renewed interest were released on January 30, 2026, as part of a 3.5 million-page DOJ document dump under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed by President Trump on November 19, 2025. Two 2019 tips the FBI had possessed for six years without acting on were buried in those files.

The first was an anonymous email to an Albuquerque radio host alleging that two foreign girls were buried on the ranch property, claiming the sender possessed videos depicting minors. The second was an email from a retired New Mexico State Police officer describing a barn on the property with what appeared to be a concealed incinerator. Both were forwarded to the FBI, filed away, and never prompted a search until 2026.

Epstein purchased Zorro Ranch in 1993 from former New Mexico Governor Bruce King for roughly $12 million. He owned it for 26 years until his death. The 7,500-acre spread in the high desert of southern Santa Fe County was more remote than his other properties, including Little St. James island in the U.S. Virgin Islands (purchased 1998) and his Manhattan townhouse. Allegations that Epstein harmed minors at Zorro Ranch date to 1996, three years after he bought the property.

Epstein was convicted of solicitation of prostitution in Palm Beach County, Florida in 2008, but was never required to register as a sex offender in New Mexico despite that conviction. The commission is specifically investigating whether state officials helped him avoid that obligation.

In 2007, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida drafted a 60-count indictment against Epstein. U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta instead negotiated a secret signed on September 24, 2007, one day before prosecutors were prepared to indict him. The deal required Epstein to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges, serve 13 months with work-release privileges, and register as a sex offender in Florida. It also granted from federal prosecution to Epstein, four named co-conspirators, and any unnamed 'potential co-conspirators.'

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility later concluded Acosta had exercised 'poor judgment.' The deal's secrecy violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act by hiding the agreement from Epstein's victims until after it was finalized. Acosta resigned as Trump's Labor Secretary in July 2019 after the NPA's terms became public.

The Survivors Truth Commission's $2 million budget comes entirely from bank settlement funds, not state general funds. The New Mexico Department of Justice reached a $4.95 million settlement with Deutsche Bank in 2023 and a separate $12 million settlement with JPMorgan Chase in 2024, a deal that included a clause prohibiting the state from issuing a public news release or disparaging the bank. These NM-specific settlements are separate from the larger federal class-action settlements: JPMorgan paid $290 million to Epstein survivors nationally in 2023, and Deutsche Bank paid $75 million to a separate survivor class. The commission draws from a pool of $15 million in settlement funds restricted to anti-human-trafficking efforts. The same banks being subpoenaed for Epstein-related records are, in effect, funding the commission investigating them.

The commission's mandate covers four distinct areas: and abuse at the ranch; medical and scientific experiments or projects Epstein conducted or funded; the power networks that allowed him to operate in New Mexico for 26 years; and whether Epstein received assistance or cover from state or local officials, banks, or affiliated institutions. The July 31 initial report is expected to identify what records have been produced, what institutional cooperation has looked like, and what next investigative steps are warranted. A final report is planned before the commission's end-of-year expiration, though the legislation allows for an extension.

New Mexico truth commission issues 14 Zorro Ranch subpoenas