New Mexico reopens investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch
Mug shot of Jeffrey Epstein, 2019. (Photo by Kypros/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — More than six years after the infamous financier and sex offender’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, the investigation into potential wrongdoing at Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling hacienda in New Mexico is being reopened, according to a spokesperson for the state’s Justice Department.
In its heyday, Zorro Ranch played host to a who’s who of Epstein’s prominent guests. It also became the site where multiple girls alleged that they were sexually assaulted. Among them: Annie Farmer, who offered key testimony during Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial that she had been sexually abused at 16 years old by Epstein and Maxwell at the ranch in the mid-1990s.
The property, locally dubbed the “Playboy Ranch,” will now get fresh scrutiny over the many allegations of illegal activity on its grounds.
“Upon reviewing information recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General Raúl Torrez has ordered that the criminal investigation into allegations of illegal activity at Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch be reopened,” Lauren Rodriguez, Chief of Staff for the New Mexico Department of Justice, said in a statement to ABC News.
While Epstein’s New York townhouse and his Caribbean island were raided as part of the case against Epstein, records now released by the DOJ indicate federal law enforcement never raided Zorro.
“We have not searched the New Mexico property,” said a Dec. 20, 2019, email from a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York to a lawyer for Epstein’s estate.
New Mexico’s prior investigation was “closed in 2019 at the request of the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York,” according to New Mexico DOJ’s Rodriguez. Lawmakers in New Mexico pushing for the renewed probe have also said there was no record of federal law enforcement searching Zorro.
But now, “revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination,” Rodriguez said. “Special agents and prosecutors at the New Mexico Department of Justice will be seeking immediate access to the complete, unredacted federal case file and intend to work collaboratively with our law enforcement partners as well as the Epstein Truth Commission recently established by the New Mexico Legislature.”
“As with any potential criminal matter, we will follow the facts wherever they lead, carefully evaluate jurisdictional considerations, and take appropriate investigative action, including the collection and preservation of any relevant evidence that remains available,” Rodriguez added. “We are moving quickly and deliberately on this issue and will provide updates as appropriate.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson has a word with Sen. Barrack Obama, after a Congressional Black Caucus ceremony at the Library of Congress, in which members where sworn into the CBC for the109th Congress, Jan. 4, 2005. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
(CHICAGO) — Three former American presidents and a former vice president are set to honor the late Rev. Jesse Jackson at a memorial service in Chicago on Friday morning – a “Celebration of Hope” that is being held by the family of the pioneering civil rights leader, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to deliver remarks at the homegoing services on Friday, according to the Jackson family. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former first lady Jill Biden are also expected to attend the services, the family said.
ABC News reached out to representatives for Clinton, Obama, Biden and Harris for further comment.
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people. He traveled the world fighting economic and gender inequity. Until his last days, he fought for better healthcare, education, and peace in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and beyond,” the Jackson family said in a statement on Wednesday. “I hope everyone who joins us to honor his legacy will also continue to champion these causes. That would be the best possible tribute and celebration they could offer.”
Friday’s public homegoing service will take place at the House of Hope event center. A private service will take place on Saturday morning in Chicago.
The services come after thousands paid their respects to Jackson as he lay in honor at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago last week. He was also honored in his birth state of South Carolina on Monday, where he laid in state at the state house in Columbia.
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. changed the United States — and the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. “We are deeply honored to know there are people from every walk of life who want to join us to pay their respects.”
Other scheduled speakers at the service on Friday include Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ill., and Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. Singer and actress Jennifer Hudson and gospel legends Bebe Winans and Pastor Marvin Winans are also expected to perform on Friday. Stevie Wonder is set to perform at the private service on Saturday.
Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.
Jackson’s children honored their father’s legacy at a press conference last month, reflecting on his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs and how he dedicated his career to advancing economic justice and building political power for Black Americans.
Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson, Jr., called for unity in the Feb. 18 press conference ahead of his father’s funeral services.
“Do not bring your politics out of respect to Rev. Jesse Jackson and the life that he lived to these home going services,” he said. “Come respectful and come to say thank you, but these homegoing services are welcome to all Democrat, Republican, liberal and conservative, right wing, left wing, because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American.”
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court, December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A Minnesota man allegedly tried to break Luigi Mangione out of jail in New York, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Mark Anderson, 36, was charged Thursday with impersonating a federal agent after authorities said he showed up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn claiming to be an FBI agent with a court order to release Mangione, sources said.
Mangione is being held at MDC-Brooklyn while he awaits federal and state trials for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Anderson allegedly approached the intake area inside the MDC and claimed he had paperwork “signed by a judge” authorizing the release of a specific inmate, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint does not name Mangione, but law enforcement sources told ABC News that is who Anderson was seeking.
When Bureau of Prisons personnel asked to see Anderson’s credentials, federal prosecutors said he showed them a Minnesota driver’s license and “threw at the BOP officers numerous documents.”
Anderson said he had weapons in his bag, and inside the bag was a barbecue fork and a pizza cutter, according to the criminal complaint.
Anderson is expected to appear in court later on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Mangione is due in court on Friday; the judge overseeing his federal case may decide if the death penalty will remain a sentencing option if he’s convicted.
A rescue ski team makes their way to the area of an avalanche in the Castle Peak area of Truckee, Calif., February 17, 2026. (Nevada County Sheriff’s Office)
(NEVADA COUNTY, Calif.) — Eight backcountry skiers have been found dead, and one remains missing following an avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, officials announced Wednesday.
Search crews on Tuesday braved “highly dangerous” conditions to rescue six other skiers who were part of the same guided group, authorities said.
Crews were working on Wednesday to bring the remains of the eight dead skiers off the mountain to be reunited with their families after autopsies are performed to determine the cause of death, authorities said.
Perilous conditions near Donner Pass, where the avalanche occurred, continued on Wednesday morning. Rescuers faced a winter storm dumping more than 2 inches of snow an hour in the area, grounding rescue helicopters and hampering ground crews trying to reach the missing skiers, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center.
Tuesday’s avalanche was reported around 11:30 a.m. PT in the Castle Peak area at an elevation of 8,200 feet in the Sierra Nevada northwest of Lake Tahoe, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
A group of 15 skiers, including four guides from the company Blackbird Mountain Guides, encountered the avalanche, according to the sheriff’s office.
“The group was in the process of returning to the trailhead at the conclusion of a three-day trip when the incident occurred,” Blackbird Mountain Guides said in a statement.
Preliminarily, the slide measured a D2.5 on the Destructive Force Scale, the avalanche version of the Enhanced Fujita Scale for rating tornadoes, meaning it was strong enough to injure, bury, or kill a person, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center. A D3 on the scale is strong enough to destroy a house.
Six people were successfully rescued Tuesday evening by search-and-rescue teams with varying injuries, authorities said. The survivors had been taking cover under a tarp when they were found alive, a source who communicated with the group told ABC News.
The survivors made a 911 call using an iPhone satellite SOS message, the sheriff’s officer said. Emergency beacons also helped rescuers find the stranded skiers, the sheriff’s office said.
“Due to extreme weather conditions, it took several hours for rescue personnel to safely reach the skiers and transport them to safety where they were medically evaluated by Truckee Fire,” the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Two of the six skiers have been transported to a hospital for treatment.”
Authorities initially said 16 skiers were in the group, and 10 were missing.
Rescuers faced very difficult conditions, including avalanche danger themselves, according to Brandon Schwartz, director of the Sierra Avalanche Center, which forecasts avalanche conditions in the area around Lake Tahoe. The area saw 2 to 3 feet of new snow in the last 36 hours and more was still falling at 2 to 4 inches per hour, Schwartz told ABC News.
The Blackbird Mountain Guides said the avalanche happened near the Frog Lake Backcountry Huts in the Castle Peak area, northwest of Truckee.
The group of skiers had been staying at the huts — which the company describes in online advertisements as “luxury-dormitories” — since Sunday. A 3-to-4-day stay at the huts normally costs $1,795, according to the company’s website.
The company lists prerequisites for customers, including requiring skiers to be “adept with their backcountry touring skills and have a solid foundation of touring before the trip.” Customers are also required to be in good physical shape, according to the company, “able to hike 4-6 miles and climb 1,500-2,500 vertical feet throughout the course of a day.”
The Sierra Avalanche Center said there was “high” avalanche danger in the backcountry on Tuesday, raising questions of why the group was in the rugged area.
On Monday, Blackbird Mountain Guides posted a video on Instagram showing what it described as “atypical layering from our normal mid season snowpack.”
“The result is a particularly weak layer in many northerly aspects, across various elevation bands,” a company employee said in the video. “As we move into a large storm cycle this week, pay close attention to places where faceting has been particularly strong — avalanches could behave abnormally and hazards could last longer than normal.”
The Sierra Avalanche Center said rapidly accumulating snowfall, weak layers of existing snowpack and gale-force winds that blow and drift snow “have created dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountains.”
“Natural avalanches are likely, and human-triggered avalanches large enough to bury or injure people are very likely,” the center said.
The center has issued an avalanche warning for the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains between Yuba Pass on the north and Ebbetts Pass on the south, including the greater Lake Tahoe area, through Wednesday morning.
In an updated statement on Wednesday morning, the center said, “HIGH avalanche danger continues,” and added, “travel in, near, or below avalanche terrain not recommended.”
“Increased uncertainty exists with ongoing reactivity of these buried weak layers under this large storm snow load. The potential continues for large to very large avalanches occurring in the backcountry today.”
Whiteout conditions have been reported in the region where the avalanche occurred.
The California Highway Patrol’s Truckee office warned that high winds are “creating full whiteout conditions” across the Donner Summit.
Interstate 80 over Donner Summit was closed in both directions on Tuesday and remained closed on Wednesday morning due to whiteout conditions and poor visibility.
