Last Monday, the New Mexico state House of Representatives voted unanimously for the formation of an investigatory subcommittee that they have dubbed the “truth commission”.
The goal of the committee is to investigate Jeffery Epstein’s so-called “Zorro Ranch” in Santa Fe County. Survivors have come forward with stories of abuse that occurred on the New Mexican ranch. The business of the committee will involve a “public-facing website, a live-tipline and an investigative report”.
While other properties of Epstein’s were federally searched, state and local officials are unaware of any such searches at the Santa Fe ranch. New Mexico’s attorney general at the time of Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Hector Balderas, says his office was asked by federal prosecutors to hold any further state investigation or prosecution of activity related to Epstein, as they communicated that they were already leading an active multi-jurisdictional prosecution.”
The commission chair representative, Andrea Romero, says that the “truth commission will finally fill in the gaps for what we need to know as the public …. So we can learn from them and prevent these atrocities from taking place ever again in this state,” with the affirmation that residents “deserve to know the truth about what went on at the Zorro Ranch and who knew about it.”
The committee will have an expected budget of $2 million, with efforts underway to hire investigators, legal experts and staff. The committee is made up of four representatives, two democrats and two republicans. This is not by coincidence or mistake. Romero says they need to “keep the politics out of it.” The commissioners say they hope to cut through the noise of the polarization that surrounds the Epstein case.
New Mexican representatives had spoken up, saying that the state officials are going to step up and take action where the federal government has failed.
Representative Melaine Stansbury says, “It is a structured process through which survivors can come forward, witnesses can come forward, we can uncover a full picture of what happened and why the justice system has failed survivors in our state … This is what the US DOJ should be doing in every single case at the federal level.”
Photo courtesy of social media
