A businessman running to be Texas comptroller has been revealed as the person who bought Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous New Mexico ranch, according to a report.
Don Huffines, 67, a self-described “MAGA Trump Republican,” is the current owner of the former Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County, according to records obtained by The Santa Fe New Mexican.
The property – including a 26,700 square foot hilltop mansion, where the late billionaire sex offender abused victims over a 26-year period – was first put up for sale in July 2021, two years after Epstein’s suicide in a New York City jail cell, and was valued at $27.5 million at that time.
It was sold in 2023 for an undisclosed amount to an entity called San Rafael Ranch LLC, which the newspaper has now traced to Huffines through public records requests.
The newspaper adds that the property was valued for tax purposes at $21.1 million for the 2023 fiscal year, and that the LLC argued that Epstein’s “notoriety” and its higher sales price meant a lower valuation was merited.
The Santa Fe County assessor later revalued the property for that tax year at $13.4 million, according to the New Mexican.
Its address was changed from 49 Zorro Ranch Road to 49 Rancho San Rafael Road in 2024.
Huffines’ campaign spokesperson Allen Blakemore told The Independent: “Four years after Mr Epstein’s death, the Huffines family purchased property in New Mexico listed at public auction whose proceeds benefited his victims. Prior to the auction listing, they had never visited the property.
“The owners have never been approached by local, state, or federal law enforcement requesting access to the San Rafael Ranch. If, and when they do, of course they will be grated full and complete cooperation.”
The GOP candidate for Texas comptroller is a former state senator from Dallas who declares on his website that he intends to “DOGE Texas to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse and save taxpayer money,” and make the Lone Star State “a lighthouse for liberty.”
“Guided by his deep Texas roots and commitment to faith, family, and freedom, Don has spent his life fighting to protect taxpayers and advancing conservative values,” his bio states, also noting his “generous” philanthropy and making clear that he “learned the value of hard work early while greasing cars for $2 an hour at his family’s automotive business.”
Huffines’ campaign boasts endorsements from Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, former congressman Ron Paul, conservative influencer Riley Gaines, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and the late Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
He currently holds a steady lead over his three primary rivals, boasting a 20 percentage point lead over Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock and a 12 percentage point lead over Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, according to The Texas Tribune, citing polling published last week.
New Mexico lawmakers are seeking to create a bipartisan “truth commission” to uncover precisely what happened at the ranch after Epstein acquired it from former state governor Bruce King in 1993.
The late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre was pictured at the property while other survivors of his abuse, including Annie Farmer and “Jane,” have described the ordeals they suffered at the site at the hands of Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
“What we’re going to try to do is get everything on the record in the time span that he was here,” state representative Andrea Romero told KOB 4 last week.
“When we heard the allegations from his various victims of people who alleged that they were trafficked here, that they were sexually abused here – some as children – I’m just heartbroken, and it’s just so disgusting to think that that happened on our watch at all.”
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