New Mexico Governor Could Break the Epstein Case Open For The World See.

Newsweek: Sam Stevenson. DOJ/Zorro Ranch

Note from the author: What follows is an article plus several other things. There is the journalism so you understand the context. Then there’s a toolkit for an influence campaign you can run in 5 minutes per day over the course of a week or two, or all in a day if you want. That is so you can do something about what you just read. After that you can find some explanation of how The Existentialist Republic created the toolkit for those of you who are in the space where you want to learn the meta-skills, research backed theories, underlying methodology I apply to tailor Existentialist Republic Effective Activism Campaigns. At the very bottom of the page you’ll find free books, model legislation, training booklets, and more. Feel free to scroll ahead or skip past any section.

Special thanks to Alisa-Valdes-Rodriguez and the example they have set for other journalists.

Like many of you, I’ve been reading Alisa Valdes-Rodríguez’s reporting on Zorro Ranch at The Pugilist. On April 18, she described what a thorough search of the property would look like. In her words, “a thorough search of 7,500 acres of rough New Mexico terrain, with multiple structures and outbuildings, requires not days but weeks. It requires ground-penetrating radar. It requires excavation where dogs alert. One alert, one dig.” Seventy-five hundred acres is roughly the size of Manhattan below 59th Street. The March 9 search lasted hours. Investigators didn’t bring ground-penetrating radar onto the property, they didn’t excavate where dogs alerted, and they never set foot on the state-owned land surrounding the ranch, the adjacent King family ranch, or San Cristobal Ranch on the other side of the fence. The owners let them in voluntarily, which is called a consent search, and it ended when the owners decided it ended.

The survivors are owed more than the search that occurred. Annie Farmer testified at the Maxwell trial that Epstein and Maxwell abused her at Zorro Ranch when she was sixteen. Rachel Benavidez, a former Santa Fe massage therapist, has spoken publicly about being assaulted there over approximately two years. Maria Farmer reported abuse to the FBI in 1996. Virginia Giuffre testified she was trafficked there and ordered to have sex with Epstein and other men. The Solace Crisis Treatment Center in Santa Fe has reported that approximately forty-five individuals approached the center about Epstein-ring trafficking, with a quarter to half saying they were abused at the ranch. The federal Department of Justice has declined further Epstein prosecutions. Epstein’s friends run the DOJ, the FBI, the GOP, and the Supreme Court. States are the option that’s left. New Mexico has a pivotal case. Unfortunately, evidence degrades, witnesses die or disappear, statutes of limitation tick, victims reasonably decide they would rather not relive the trauma, and the Huffines family could sell the property again. The political moment for a state action like this is now.

I’ve been turning the question over since I read it. How do you get a full scale search of Zorro Ranch to happen, using the institutions that exist, in the political moment we’re in?

The answer isn’t necessarily the Attorney General. Attorney General Raúl Torrez reopened the investigation in February after his predecessor closed it in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors handling the Epstein criminal case under the first Trump administration. NMDOJ has roughly two hundred employees across the entire office, and they’re mostly lawyers. The AG’s office doesn’t have dedicated cadaver-dog teams, ground-penetrating radar in-house, or forensic accountants assigned full-time to trace shell companies through Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Southern Trust, the Zorro Trust, and the Caribbean entities Epstein and his estate moved money through. The Attorney General could have asked the Governor for State Police investigators, forensic capacity through the Department of Public Safety, National Guard logistical support, or coordination from the State Land Office. To public knowledge, he hasn’t. The Truth Commission the Legislature created has two million dollars, eighteen months, subpoena power, and no investigative resources of its own. Neither has what the standard requires.

Who has both the investigative and administrative resources to do all of this? The Governor.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is in her final year in office. She has the authority to sign an executive order, which is a written directive that mobilizes the state agencies that report to her. She’s used this kind of order before. On September 8, 2023, she signed one declaring a public-safety emergency in Albuquerque and directing the State Police, the Department of Public Safety, and the Department of Health to respond to gun violence. The order was controversial, and parts of it didn’t survive in court, but the structural move stands. She knows how to use this tool and she is willing to take a bold action and let the courts sort it out. That behavior is worthy of celebrating when it comes from conviction and sincere concern for the public, as her executive order on gun violence was. I’m not a New Mexico resident and I’m sure there are people there who have issues with their Governor, but I have to say that exploring her record makes her seem like someone with a conscience.

She’s also said the right words on this case. On February 19, when the Attorney General reopened the Zorro investigation, she said, “We don’t care who you are here. If you did something and you’re associated in these Epstein cases, and you perpetrated a crime, and there are still victims, there are potentially deaths and bodies, we will find it.” That was a commitment. What’s missing is the executive order that turns the commitment into operational capacity.

That executive order can do five things in sequence, and none of them require the Attorney General’s permission or interfere with his investigation.

First, search the state-owned land. The land surrounding Zorro Ranch is leased to Epstein’s estate but owned by New Mexico. Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard has publicly called for investigation of the state trust land surrounding the ranch, saying authorities must “leave no stone unturned in finding answers.” The Governor’s order can direct the State Police, the Department of Public Safety, and the National Guard to conduct a thorough search of that land, with ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs. The state owns it, no warrant is required, and this work can begin immediately.

Second, work the documents. Forensic accountants and investigators can move through what’s already in NMDOJ’s possession from the Deutsche Bank settlement, the JPMorgan settlement, and the federal files. The Bradbury Stamm Construction question. The FCC microwave licenses still active under Zorro Development Corp. The Zorro Trust. The 2008 Powerball claim by Epstein’s New Mexico business. The 1993 Power of Attorney that former U.S. Attorney John J. Kelly held for Epstein on the original Zorro purchase. None of this requires a search warrant on private property. All of it can develop the kind of evidence that justifies what comes next.

Third, interview witnesses. State Police investigators detailed under the Governor’s order can support NMDOJ on witness work. Brice and Karen Gordon, the former ranch managers. Former Zorro staff. Survivors who’ve approached Solace but haven’t formally testified. Witness testimony, taken under subpoena and grand jury authority that NMDOJ already has, is the most reliable way to develop what the law calls probable cause, which is the specific evidence a judge requires before signing a search warrant for private property.

Fourth, when probable cause develops, search the property again with a warrant. The March 9 search ended because the owners ended it. A second search of the main ranch property requires either renewed permission from the owners, which is unlikely given how their attorney framed the first search, or a warrant supported by probable cause. The work in the first three steps produces that probable cause. The Attorney General said in his March 7 op-ed that “physical evidence may no longer exist.” With the resources mobilized by the Governor’s order in place, the equipment, the dogs, the forensic teams, and the personnel are ready to act the same week the warrant is signed, not six months later.

Fifth, build the same case for the adjacent properties. A search of the King family ranch or San Cristobal Ranch requires probable cause specific to those properties. That probable cause doesn’t exist today. It might develop from the document work and the witness work, especially the financial relationships and the communications infrastructure Valdes-Rodríguez has been documenting. If it develops, the resources are in place to act.

The path builds the case the law requires before the searches the case demands. It begins with the work that doesn’t require warrants and ends with searches that have the predicate to survive any defense lawyer the Huffines family hires.

What the Governor’s order would actually stand up is a dedicated task force inside NMDOJ, staffed with forensic accountants, investigators, and prosecutors detailed from State Police and other state agencies. The task force can issue grand jury subpoenas for records, take depositions from witnesses and co-conspirators named in the files, and present evidence to a grand jury when the case is ready for indictment. None of this is exotic. It is what state attorneys general do every day on complex financial and trafficking cases. The Governor’s order gives the office the staffing and the agency cooperation to do it at the scale this case requires.

The work each step produces matters as much as the order in which it happens. The 2019 anonymous tip in federal files alleged that two foreign girls were buried in the hills around the ranch. Cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar are the tools that find buried remains, and if remains are found, the case moves from a trafficking investigation to a homicide investigation, which has no statute of limitations. The document work can identify the people who moved money through the Zorro Trust, Southern Trust, and the Caribbean entities, which means names of co-conspirators who paid, recruited, facilitated, or participated. The witness work can produce sworn testimony from people who’ve never been compelled to give it. Together, these unlock state charges that can’t be undone by federal action, a public record that survives whatever the federal government chooses to do or not do, civil exposure for the banks, contractors, and infrastructure providers that made the operation possible, and pressure on every other state where Epstein operated to follow what New Mexico surfaces.

The precedent for this kind of executive order is established and bipartisan. In Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker signed an executive order in April 2015 creating a Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence and used administrative authority to stand up a Human Trafficking Unit inside the Massachusetts State Police. In New Hampshire, Governor Chris Sununu signed an executive order in 2020 creating a Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability. Connecticut has run a Governor’s Task Force on Justice for Abused Children continuously since 1988, established by gubernatorial action and operating through multidisciplinary investigative teams ever since. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott built a Child Sex Trafficking Team inside the Office of the Governor with statewide investigative coordination authority. The mechanism is the same in every case. A governor uses her authority to build investigative coordination that supplements existing prosecutorial authority without taking it over. Governor Lujan Grisham wouldn’t be inventing anything. She’d be doing what other governors have done, in a state that needs it, on a case the federal government has formally declined to pursue.

The political reality is straightforward. The Attorney General can’t publicly oppose the Governor supplying him with State Police investigators, forensic capacity, and cooperation from the State Land Office on a child sex trafficking case. The Truth Commission can’t oppose more capacity feeding its referrals. The survivor coalition chanted “Raúl Torrez, get us justice” at the International Women’s Day rally outside the ranch, and Rachel Benavidez has called publicly for accountability. Land Commissioner Garcia Richard has asked for a full investigation. The federal congressional delegation, including Senator Martin Heinrich and Representatives Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernández, is aligned on Epstein accountability and would welcome the move. There’s no constituency for refusing additional investigative resources directed at child sex trafficking on the property where Annie Farmer testified she was abused at sixteen, where Maria Farmer reported abuse to the FBI in 1996, where Virginia Giuffre testified she was trafficked, and where Rachel Benavidez has spoken publicly about being assaulted over approximately two years.

This is what Tier 3 of the American Reformation framework looks like in practice: oppositional federalism, state prosecution of conduct the federal system is actively covering up. I can’t imagine something more “originalist” and true to our founders’ vision than states using their constitutionally authorized and lawful powers to investigate and enforce the law when the federal government has been captured. They intended for a system with safeguards beyond the bicameral legislature or three branches of government. We have checks and balances from the personal, local, city, state, and even tribal government levels to influence our nation towards freedom and justice.

The Governor has the authority to build the path that gets New Mexico’s investigation up and running to the degree it merits. She has the legal tools, the political circumstances, and the public commitment on the record. What she needs is for the public and her coalition to ask her to use them.

What follows is who to contact, what to say, and how to make sure Governor Lujan Grisham hears the request from the people whose support she relies on. An elected official keeps her job by keeping her coalition together. A term-limited Governor builds her legacy by listening to the people who put her in office.

And maybe, she is just waiting to hear the right idea, and know that she has the support of America as she stands for freedom under siege.

10 new subscribers per article. That’s what it takes. This work only continues thanks to the folks who step up every article to become subscribers and members. Don’t let this be the reason you miss rent or skip a meal. If you find this work of value and can keep it alive, this is how you make it happen.

BuyMeACoffee.com/TheER

What You Can Do

The ask is consistent across every cluster. We are asking Governor Lujan Grisham to issue an executive order mobilizing the New Mexico State Police, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Health, the State Land Office, the Children Youth and Families Department, and the National Guard to supplement NMDOJ’s investigation of Zorro Ranch and the broader Epstein case in New Mexico. The order does five things in sequence: search the state-owned land surrounding the ranch, work the documents, interview witnesses, prepare for a warranted search of the property when probable cause develops, and build the same case for adjacent properties when the evidence supports it.

What follows is the five-cluster pressure architecture that gets her there.

If you as an individual activist do every one of the below actions, you will have personally waged a powerfully impactful influence campaign.

Can you get a few people in your indivisible group to join you?

If 100 people get after the entire list?

That’s a movement.

If you do just one thing that still matters and could be what makes it happen. If you choose to do one thing on the list, make it contacting the Governor’s office, which is last on the list.

I’ll be starting this afternoon.

Cluster One: Public-Sector Labor

Public-sector unions delivered organizing, turnout, and political cover for both of Governor Lujan Grisham’s gubernatorial campaigns. AFSCME Council 18 negotiated a historic contract with her administration in 2022 that included the strongest set of raises in state history. NEA-NM and AFT-NM are pillars of her education record. AFT national president Randi Weingarten personally rallied for her at IBEW 611 Labor Hall in October 2022. Her relationship with these unions is operational. They run the state services her record depends on, and the workers they represent are the same workers her executive order would mobilize.

AFSCME Council 18. Endorsed Governor Lujan Grisham September 15, 2022. Executive Director Connie Derr, who also serves as AFSCME International Vice President for Southwestern District. Website afscme18.org for current contact information.

New Mexico Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Statewide labor coalition, endorsed her September 2022. Website nmfl.org for current contact information.

AFT-NM (American Federation of Teachers, New Mexico). Active in 2022 reelection. Website aft.org/affiliates for state contact.

The ask. A public letter from these unions to the Governor’s office calling for the executive order, released simultaneously to the Albuquerque Journal and Santa Fe New Mexican editorial boards. Public-sector unions have moral authority because the workers they represent are the workers the order would mobilize.

If you’re a member. Identify yourself as a member of AFSCME Council 18, NEA-NM, or AFT-NM. Tell them you supported Governor Lujan Grisham’s campaigns and you are asking the union to publicly call on her to issue an executive order mobilizing state investigative resources for Zorro Ranch and the broader Epstein investigation. The workers your union represents are the same workers the order would task with this work. They deserve the resources and authorization to do it.

If you’re a supporter. Identify yourself as a New Mexican who supports the workers your union represents. The proposed executive order would mobilize the State Police, DPS, CYFD, and other agencies your members staff. Ask the union to publicly support the order so the workers carrying out this investigation have the institutional backing they need.

Cluster Two: Hispanic and Latina Political Base

Governor Lujan Grisham is the first Latina elected governor of New Mexico in her own right. The Hispanic and Latina political community in this state delivered the identity-base mobilization, fundraising, and turnout that made her victories possible. Latina survivors of trafficking are part of who got harmed at and around Zorro Ranch. Latina girls and women may be in the ground there, per the 2019 federal tip about two foreign girls buried in the hills. The Hispanic and Latina community in New Mexico carries the weight of missing women across the border and the missing-and-murdered women crisis that overlaps with it. These are their community’s daughters, sisters, and neighbors. The first Latina governor of New Mexico has the authority to act on a case where Latinas are at the center, came forward, never came forward, or never came home.

Hispano Round Table of New Mexico. Coalition of more than fifty Hispano organizations statewide. Chairman Ralph Arellanes Sr. PO Box 13418, Albuquerque NM 87192. Phone 505-688-2973. Email ralphnmlulac@gmail.com.

MANA de Albuquerque. A National Latina Organization chapter, serving Bernalillo, Sandoval, and Valencia counties. PO Box 25801, Albuquerque NM 87125. Phone 505-321-2601. Email admin@manadealbuquerque.org.

MANA del Norte. Serving northern New Mexico.

Hispanic Democratic Caucus of New Mexico. Within the state Democratic Party of New Mexico structure. Website nmdemocrats.org for caucus contact.

The ask. A public letter from Hispanic and Latina community leaders to the Governor’s office calling for the executive order. The letter centers Latina survivors who came forward, those who never did, and those who may be buried. Released to the Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, and Latina-focused outlets including Telemundo affiliates and local Spanish-language press.

If you’re a member of this community. A 2019 anonymous tip in federal files alleged that two foreign girls were buried in the hills around Zorro Ranch. Foreign in New Mexico means daughters of the hemisphere. They could be Mexican. Guatemalan. Honduran. Salvadoran. Colombian. Their families may not know what happened to them. The first Latina elected governor of New Mexico has the authority to send cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar onto state-owned land surrounding that ranch and find out. Tell the organization that Latina survivors who came forward are owed answers, the ones who never did are owed acknowledgment, and the ones who never came home are owed a search. Ask them to publicly call on Governor Lujan Grisham to issue the executive order. Latinas in this state carry the weight of every missing woman across the border. Our governor has the tools to act on a case where the missing might be ours.

If you’re a supporter. Identify yourself as a New Mexican who stands with the Hispanic and Latina community. The 2019 tip in federal files alleges that two foreign girls were buried in the hills around the ranch, and in this geography that likely means daughters of Latin American families who never got an answer. Latina survivors are among those who came forward. Ask the organization to publicly support the executive order so the search can happen.

Cluster Three: Women’s Rights and Sexual Assault Survivor Organizations

Governor Lujan Grisham positioned herself nationally on reproductive rights and women’s safety. EMILYs List endorsed her in 2022 specifically as the first Democratic Latina governor in U.S. history. National women’s organizations carried her record into the national conversation. A child sex trafficking case where survivors include named Maxwell-trial witnesses and forty-five individuals tracked by Solace is a case these organizations cannot be silent on without contradicting their stated missions.

Solace Crisis Treatment Center, Santa Fe. The local anchor for any coalition letter. Executive Director María José Rodríguez Cádiz. 6601 Valentine Way, Santa Fe NM 87507. Phone 505-988-1951. Crisis hotline 1-800-721-7273.

EMILYs List. National. Endorsed Governor Lujan Grisham for 2022 reelection. President Jessica Mackler.

New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. Statewide network of sexual assault response organizations including Solace. Website nmcsap.org.

Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico. Political arm. Website plannedparenthoodaction.org.

The ask. A coalition letter signed by Solace as the local anchor and as many co-signers as possible from the national women’s and survivor advocacy network. The letter calls for the executive order by name and is released to national press. National signatories give the Governor’s office a national-attention frame and give other state Democrats cover to follow if she acts.

If you’re a member or supporter. Identify yourself as a supporter of the organization. The Zorro Ranch case includes named survivors from the Maxwell trial, public accounts from Rachel Benavidez and Virginia Giuffre, the FBI report Maria Farmer made in 1996, and approximately forty-five individuals who approached Solace about Epstein-ring trafficking. A 2019 anonymous tip in federal files alleged that two foreign girls were buried in the hills around the ranch, and the only way to find out is to search the state-owned land with cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar. Ask the organization to sign or initiate a coalition letter calling on Governor Lujan Grisham to issue the executive order.

Cluster Four: New Mexico Media

New Mexico newspapers and broadcast outlets shape how Governor Lujan Grisham’s record is read at home. Editorial board endorsements in 2022 carried significant weight in her reelection. Editorial calls to action move the Governor’s office. The Albuquerque Journal and the Santa Fe New Mexican in particular reach the political class that surrounds her, and Source NM has done the deepest reporting on the Zorro investigation to date.

Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board. Letters to letters@abqjournal.com. Op-ed submissions through the Journal opinion page.

Santa Fe New Mexican Editorial Board. Letters to letters@sfnewmexican.com.

Source New Mexico. Independent state news. Website sourcenm.com.

KUNM (Albuquerque public radio) and KSFR (Santa Fe public radio). News tip lines on kunm.org and ksfr.org.

Searchlight New Mexico. Investigative outlet.

The ask. Editorial board calls for the executive order. Op-ed space for community supporters to make the case. News coverage of the gap between the Governor’s February 19 commitment and her continued silence on the executive order mechanism.

Op-ed pitch. A six-hundred to eight-hundred word piece making the case for the executive order. Frame around the survivors named in this article, the federal stand-down, the Governor’s existing public commitment, the 2019 federal-files tip about two foreign girls allegedly buried in the hills around the ranch, and the precedent set by other governors. The 2019 tip is the most underreported piece of evidence in the case and the one a state EO could most directly address.

Letter to editor. Two hundred words naming the case, the Governor’s commitment, and the executive order as the mechanism that converts the commitment into action.

Cluster Five: Aligned State Officials and Legislators

Governor Lujan Grisham governs alongside other statewide elected officials and a Democratic legislature. Public support from these allies for the executive order is political cover she needs to issue it. Without their visible support, she would be acting alone. With it, she is acting with the state’s elected leadership behind her. Land Commissioner Garcia Richard has already done the public work on this. The Truth Commission members are structurally allied. State legislative leadership has institutional weight.

Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard. New Mexico State Land Office. 310 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe NM 87501. Phone 505-827-5760. She has already publicly called for investigation of the state lease land surrounding the ranch.

Truth Commission members. The state legislative commission investigating the Epstein-Zorro nexus: Representatives Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe), Marianna Anaya (D-Albuquerque), Andrea Reeb (R-Clovis), and Bill Hall (R-Aztec). Contact through the New Mexico Legislature website at nmlegis.gov.

State legislative leadership. Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart and House Speaker Javier Martínez. Through nmlegis.gov.

Senator Martin Heinrich and Senator Ben Ray Luján. Federal patrons. Through their respective Senate office websites at heinrich.senate.gov and lujan.senate.gov.

The ask. A state-officials and legislators letter led by Land Commissioner Garcia Richard, co-signed by Truth Commission members and state legislative leadership, publicly calling on the Governor to issue the executive order. A separate statement from Senator Heinrich and Senator Luján supporting state-level mobilization on the case. These are the most direct routes to the Governor’s chief of staff.

If you’re a constituent. Identify yourself. Reference Garcia Richard’s February 10 letter and the work she has already done. Ask the Land Commissioner to send a follow-up letter specifically calling on Governor Lujan Grisham to issue the executive order. For Truth Commission members and legislators, ask them to co-sign or issue parallel statements. For Senator Heinrich and Senator Luján, ask them to issue a public statement supporting state mobilization in the absence of federal action.

Direct Contact with the Governor’s Office

Every contact made through the clusters is amplified when constituents also contact the Governor’s office directly. The chief of staff tracks volume.

Phone. Office of the Governor, 505-476-2200.

Mail. Office of the Governor, 490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Suite 400, Santa Fe NM 87501.

Public correspondence portal. governor.state.nm.us.

The ask in your own words. State that you are a New Mexican, or a supporter from outside the state. Reference the Governor’s February 19, 2026 commitment that “we don’t care who you are, if you did something related to this Epstein case, we will find you.” Ask her to issue an executive order mobilizing state investigative resources to fulfill that commitment.

Then tell her what else you are doing. Tell her which organizations you have contacted, which letters you have signed, which editors you have written to. The Governor’s office tracks pressure as a network, not as a single phone line.

BuyMeACoffee.com/TheER

The Frameworks Behind This Toolkit

This toolkit is built on two frameworks. The asks come from my academic taxonomy of state response to federal authoritarian capture, which maps five postures from cooperative federalism through constitutional non-compliance and identifies oppositional federalism as the route through which states prosecute conduct the federal system has covered up. The pressure architecture, who we contact and where we apply pressure, is built on Selectorate Theory from Bueno de Mesquita and Smith’s “The Dictator’s Handbook.”

Additional Resources

Check out our books, booklets, and model legislation for more info.

Toppling Tyrants: A Field Guide to Dismantling American Fascism — physical copy / free download

Conservatism: America’s Personality Disorder — physical copy / free download

Intro to Soft Secession — physical copy / free download

Oppositional Federalism and You — physical copy / free download

Grab Them By The E.A.R.R.: How to Get Politicians to Do What You Want — physical copy / free download

Activism Journal

More Free downloads:

Soft Secession: 100 Policies That Pass

Being Dangerous: Go From Activist to Operative

Soft Secession: 100 Policies That Pass