John J. Kelly, who served as the U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico from 1993 to 2000, was exposed in April for his previously undisclosed ties with Jeffrey Epstein, and on Tuesday, veteran journalist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez accused the state’s “elites” of continuing to “protect him” amid the ongoing investigation into activity at Epstein’s sprawling New Mexico compound.
In 2024, Kelly was asked by a local news outlet why his name had appeared in Epstein’s contact directory, often referred to as his “little black book,” and told the ABC News affiliate that he had “no clue.” However, as uncovered by Valdes-Rodriguez, a file published by the Justice Department revealed that Epstein had given Kelly “power of attorney” to facilitate his purchase of Epstein’s infamous New Mexico compound known as Zorro Ranch.
It was during Kelly’s tenure as the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico that then-16-year-old Annie Farmer filed a report with the FBI about being sexually abused by Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell at Zorro Ranch – a tip that “protocol would require to be forwarded to Kelly’s offices,” Valdes-Rodriguez previously wrote, and one that ultimately went “ignored,” per The New York Times.
And yet, despite Kelly having “directly [contradicted] his account of barely knowing Epstein,” Valdes-Rodriguez argued, the ex-prosecutor remains on Albuquerque’s Ethics Board as a mayoral appointee, and no public announcements have been made regarding plans to question him, including from the newly created legislative committee with subpoena power dedicated solely to investigating potential crimes that occurred at Zorro Ranch.
“Kelly is still on the ethics board. And the state’s political and media elites continue to protect him, as he appears to have protected Epstein,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote in a report published on her Substack Tuesday.
“What none of these institutions appear to have done is look at the documents themselves. They have chosen, instead, to take Kelly’s word. That’s how s— works in New Mexico.”
Since Valdes-Rodriguez’s April report exposing Kelly’s past ties to Epstein, the former federal prosecutor has claimed that he “never met” Epstein, and that he “was never aware of any activities beyond the real estate transaction,” the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. However, Kelly’s “record of inaction against Epstein,” Valdes-Rodriguez argued, was “not insinuation,” but “fact.”
“John J. Kelly has a story to tell about Jeffrey Epstein, about Zorro Ranch, about what his office did and did not do with the reports that accumulated there over seven years,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote. “But because New Mexico is New Mexico, he has not been asked to tell it under oath. And he probably never will be.”
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