New Mexico's attorney general was eight days away from searching Jeffrey Epstein's ranch.
Then a federal prosecutor called and told him to stop.
What that prosecutor put in writing just surfaced in the Epstein files.
The Epstein Files Just Surfaced a Handwritten Note That Exposes the Zorro Ranch Deal
On July 23, 2019, Maurene Comey – James Comey's daughter and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York – reached the office of Hector Balderas, then New Mexico's attorney general, by phone.
The deal she brokered was simple: New Mexico stops all interviews, halts its investigation, and hands over its evidence to the feds. In return, the SDNY would pass back any state-related material once the federal case wrapped up.
Someone wrote those terms down. "Agreed NMDOJ will stop interviews + refer all matters to SDNY. SDNY will refer any state-related matters to NMAG @ [the] conclusion of SDNY case," the handwritten note reads. That note just surfaced in the newly released Epstein files.
Six weeks after that call, Maurene Comey sent an email confirming New Mexico had agreed to "cease any investigation into sex trafficking and share whatever they had gathered to date regarding sex trafficking activity" with her office.
New Mexico handed over everything. The SDNY gave back nothing.
"They burned me," Balderas told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "And now I think they're burning Raúl."
DOJ Sat on a Buried Bodies Tip and Ghosted New Mexico for Seven Years
After Ghislaine Maxwell's sentencing, the SDNY used New Mexico's own evidence in those proceedings – and never returned a single call, letter, or update to the office that supplied it. Balderas called it "totally bizarre." He wrote to the SDNY in 2020 asking why they hadn't seized the ranch. Nothing.
"It's very uncommon," Balderas said. "We had a history, by the way, of cooperating, working well with federal authorities in 2019."
The FBI also sat on a tip that two foreign girls were buried on the Zorro Ranch property – and never passed it to New Mexico. The tip came from someone claiming to be a former staff member. Unverified – but the kind of information that, under normal prosecutorial conduct, gets picked up and shared with state investigators who have jurisdiction.
It wasn't. Balderas only learned about it by combing through the newly released files himself.
"They could have called us back and said, 'Hey, we don't have probable cause, but anything related to bodies is state jurisdiction,'" Balderas told the DCNF. "They didn't keep their end of the deal. Plus, they didn't share critical information."
New Mexico Truth Commission Has Eight Days to Break the DOJ Stonewalling
New Mexico's Truth Commission investigation into Epstein’s Zorro Ranch has an interim report due on July 31. A final report comes December 31. The commission was created by unanimous vote of the state House and is actively seeking survivor testimony from anyone with connections to Zorro Ranch.
Seven years have passed since investigators were told to stand down – enough time for evidence to vanish and witnesses to disappear.
Current New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez gave the DOJ until July 31 to produce unredacted Epstein records – the same deadline as the interim report. The DOJ's answer so far: federal law and court orders prevent the release, full stop.
Balderas doesn't buy that for a second. He says he'll serve as a litigation witness if Torrez sues. He's calling on Torrez to pursue a states' rights legal theory to force the records loose. He's making clear that Torrez is getting the same treatment he got – and the DOJ knows exactly what it's doing.
"DOJ is going back even on their deal," Balderas said, "which is even kind of shadier than just, hey, we're going to jam you and then leave."
The SDNY banked Maxwell's conviction and walked away. New Mexico's elite prosecution unit – Balderas's words – was building a felony case on its own soil when the feds shut it down. The first search of Zorro Ranch didn't happen until March 9, 2026.
James Comey spent years lecturing America about the integrity of federal law enforcement. His daughter's email – now sitting in the public Epstein files – helped make sure the one state that was actually ready to prosecute Epstein on its own turf never got the chance.
Sources:
- Francis Kapper, "EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Has Been Hobbling New Mexico's Epstein Ranch Investigation For Years, Former AG Says," Daily Caller News Foundation, July 21, 2026.
- "New Mexico commission to begin probe into Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch," Albuquerque Journal, May 30, 2026.
- "Former New Mexico AG says federal prosecutors haven't honored Epstein investigation agreement," Source New Mexico, July 21, 2026.
