Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 12, 2026

The federal government in 2019 essentially “gutted” New Mexico’s investigation of sex trafficking at Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, the state’s former attorney general said.

A central figure in the government’s role in the Zorro Ranch investigation was then-Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Maureen Comey, daughter of disgraced ex-FBI chief James Comey.

Hector Balderas, who served as the state’s attorney general from 2014 to 2022, said he is unaware that federal investigators provided any information to New Mexico officials that could have led to criminal prosecutions there as part of the “one-way” arrangement they made with the state.

Documents from the Epstein Files released by the Trump Department of Justice show Comey wrote in an email Sept. 8, 2019, that she had secured an agreement from Balderas’s office to halt New Mexico’s investigation into Zorro Ranch.

“In essence, they agreed to cease any investigation into sex trafficking and share whatever they had gathered to date regarding sex trafficking activity with our office,” wrote Comey, who headed the criminal case against Epstein.

Cooperation between the feds and New Mexico “was a one-way relationship,” Balderas said, according to a March 1 report by the Albuquerque Journal.

Related: What about Zorro Ranch? Darkest allegations in Epstein Files were not about his island, February 4, 2026

Balderas said that Epstein was running a complex, international sex trafficking operation that should have involved attorneys general in several states, including New Mexico, Florida, and New York, where Epstein had homes.

“The investigation should have been broadened, not narrowed,” he said.

Balderas said New Mexico provided the feds information “to strengthen their prosecution.” Prosecutors made assurances they would provide findings to New Mexico investigators. “They were making the representation that they were going to prosecute with a multijurisdictional, multistate focus.”

Federal prosecutors asked New Mexico to halt its investigation to avoid “risks of parallel investigations creating inconsistent statements” that defense attorneys could exploit, Balderas said.

None of the investigative records provided by New Mexico to the feds appear to be among the more than 3 million pages of documents released last month by the Justice Department.

“In light of the recent disclosures, I remain very concerned that they did not disclose or share more information that they had in their possession,” Balderas said of federal investigators. He called the failure to work with the state and its investigators “a tactical mistake.”

Balderas’s office also sent a letter in 2020 urging federal prosecutors to seize control of Zorro Ranch to preserve evidence, records show. Balderas said he also offered to assist serving search warrants at the ranch but never received a response and has no reason to believe prosecutors acted on the requests.

  Epstein files: Comey’s daughter stopped New Mexico’s investigation of Zorro ranch