New Mexico AG Accuses Trump DOJ Official of Lying Under Oath on Epstein Ranch Records

CNN’s Jake Tapper sat visibly taken aback Wednesday as New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez suggested that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche lied to Congress under oath about cooperation on records tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch.

Torrez appeared on Tapper’s program the same day his office sued the Department of Justice. The lawsuit followed the DOJ’s failure to meet a deadline for turning over investigative files related to the New Mexico property once owned by the late sex offender. Torrez said his office, acting as a law-enforcement agency, had made a routine request for the materials.

“They’ve never worked with us,” Torrez told Tapper. He described how the DOJ redirected the request to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico—an office Torrez said he “knew full well” did not hold the full range of files sought. Even after complying with that directive, Torrez said his investigators still could not obtain the unredacted records needed for their criminal inquiry into the ranch.

“The bottom line is they’re not cooperating,” he said. “They’re stonewalling this investigation, and that’s why we had to take legal action today.”

Tapper then noted that Blanche, who currently leads the Justice Department, had testified under oath to Congress that the DOJ would cooperate with New Mexico authorities and help them obtain the information they required. Torrez’s account, Tapper observed, indicated the opposite was occurring.

“I’m just stunned because you’re suggesting that he lied to Congress when he said that under oath,” Tapper replied. “Lying to Congress is obviously illegal.”

A DOJ statement provided to CNN maintained that the department is not required to share unredacted files, that victims’ privacy interests outweigh the request, and that New Mexico has offered no lawful basis for the sweeping disclosures it seeks. Torrez rejected that framing.

“We’ve given them ample explanations for the status and nature of our ongoing criminal investigation,” he said. “Todd Blanche has the authority to grant this access with the stroke of a pen. He was refusing to do it.”

The exchange left Tapper momentarily at a loss for words and elevated a state-level records fight into a direct challenge to the credibility of the Trump administration’s top Justice Department official.

Watch the video in the link below: