In July 2019, with Jeffrey Epstein back in a federal cell, Bill Richardson's office began putting distance between them. It said Richardson visited Zorro Ranch once, in 2002, with his wife, while campaigning for governor. His spokesperson said that calling him Epstein's friend would be inaccurate, because the two men didn't know each other well.
Epstein's own correspondence says otherwise. The Justice Department began releasing his files last December under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Richardson's name appears in them more than 800 times:
He arranged to meet Epstein at least nine times after Epstein's 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution. Most meetings were at the Manhattan townhouse, and the last was scheduled for March 2018.
In late 2010, while Richardson was still governor, his staff kept Epstein updated on Richardson's effort to reach Florida's governor about clemency for Epstein.
Days after leaving office, Richardson rode on Epstein's helicopter.
Richardson died in September 2023. He was never charged with a crime, and no civil lawsuit ever named him as a defendant. This is not a verdict on what he did in private. It sets what he said in public against what the files now show, in a state that is still trying to learn what happened on a ranch outside Stanley for 26 years.
What he said, and what the files say
In August 2019, Richardson's spokesperson issued a set of denials:
The abuse allegations against him were "completely false."
He had never met Virginia Giuffre.
In his "limited interactions" with Epstein, he never saw him with underage girls.
He had never been to Epstein's Virgin Islands residence.
No party to the lawsuit had ever contacted him.
Here is what the records show, much of it first reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican from the DOJ release:
November 2010. A Richardson aide told Epstein's office that Richardson's wife was away with friends, so the visit would be Richardson alone. Two days later, Epstein emailed Nathan Myhrvold that "Gov Richardson is here," in a thread about lunch on the island.
Jan. 7, 2011. Days after his term ended, flight logs put Richardson on Epstein's helicopter with Epstein, chief of staff Brian Condit and three others. Condit says it flew from Necker Island to St. Thomas.
April 2011. Epstein called Richardson a "close friend" and "a lot of fun" in an email to Karim Wade.
2012. The files show phone calls, invitations to dinner at the ranch, and a confirmed visit to the Manhattan townhouse.
March 19, 2013. Epstein arranged a lunch at his New York house that included author Michael Wolff. In an unpublished draft, Wolff wrote that he asked Richardson how he knew Epstein. Richardson answered that Epstein was "the biggest landowner in New Mexico."
2013. Epstein used Richardson to pass a message to Robert Redford: an offer of a seat on Epstein's plane from New York to Santa Fe.
March 2015. Richardson had a press officer email Epstein just to say hello.
Jan. 7, 2011: days out of office, Richardson was logged aboard Epstein's helicopter, Necker Island to St. Thomas.
Several of those entries are not "limited interactions."
The island visit is not proven. Condit told the New Mexican he would be "shocked" if Richardson had gone, and he does not recall it. The emails describe a visit. No photo, log or witness places Richardson on Little St. James.
The "never contacted" claim also has a problem. In Bradley Edwards' litigation against Epstein, Edwards listed Richardson as a possible witness. Edwards' affidavit says Epstein's pilot testified that Richardson joined Epstein at the ranch. New Mexico's Truth Commission, citing that pilot, Larry Visoski, counts five flights he shared with Richardson.
The clemency calls
Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 and registered as a sex offender. By late 2010 he wanted clemency from Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, and he turned to the sitting governor of New Mexico for help.
The emails, first reported by the Miami Herald, run like this:
Nov. 25, 2010. An Epstein aide wrote that Richardson "has spoken to Governor Krist/Crist" but had no answer yet.
Dec. 3. Epstein's assistant, Lesley Groff, sent Richardson's office Crist's contact details.
Dec. 10. Epstein wrote that Richardson still had not reached Crist.
Dec. 22. Richardson's deputy chief of staff, Janis Hartley, wrote that Richardson was back from North Korea and asking about Crist.
Dec. 23. Hartley wrote that Richardson planned to call Crist on Dec. 27.
December 2010: Epstein's staff tracked whether New Mexico's outgoing governor had reached Florida's about clemency.
Crist denies speaking with Richardson or Epstein. No document shows the call took place. But by Epstein's own staff's account, the outgoing governor of New Mexico spent part of his last month in office trying to win clemency for a man convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution.
The same year, New Mexico had to decide whether Epstein would register as a sex offender in the state. In July 2010 the state Department of Public Safety wrote to Epstein that he must register. On Aug. 17 he registered in person at the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. Two days later, DPS wrote that he did not have to, because his victim was "not younger than 16."
DPS answered to Richardson's administration, but no record yet ties Richardson to that reversal. The Truth Commission has subpoenaed DPS for Richardson-Epstein records from 2003 to 2011, including Richardson's travel to Epstein properties. What DPS produced has not been made public.
The money
Epstein gave Richardson $100,000: $50,000 for his 2002 campaign, through an entity called Zorro Trust, and $50,000 for his 2006 reelection. A campaign record in the DOJ release (EFTA02729080) places the 2006 donation around March 2006.
After Epstein's Florida charges, Richardson gave $50,000 to charity, and his camp said that money was the 2006 donation. The charity has never been named. No public record shows what happened to the 2002 money.
Epstein spread smaller sums across New Mexico in 2006:
Gary King, running for attorney general: $15,000.
Jim Baca, running for land commissioner: $10,000.
Greg Solano, Santa Fe County sheriff: $2,000.
In 2014, King also took $35,600 from Epstein-linked Virgin Islands companies for his governor's race. He said he would return it.
The later money story is about Richardson asking Epstein for money. In February, Dr. Ursula Stauber wrote in an Albuquerque Journal op-ed that Richardson sought money from Epstein in 2016 and 2017 for the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, and cited four file numbers. Transcriptions of those files posted online describe:
October 2016. A memo on Richardson Center letterhead, from Richardson to Epstein, headed "Proposal to Support the Richardson Center." It stresses wildlife programs "at your request."
Days later. A proposal forwarded from Mickey Bergman "on behalf of Governor Richardson."
November 2017. A follow-up asking about "Jeffrey's thoughts" on the center. The reply says no grant had been approved that year.
The New Mexico Inquirer has not yet matched these transcriptions to the DOJ originals. Nothing shows Epstein paid. If the documents hold up, Richardson asked a registered sex offender to fund his center eight years after the conviction, and roughly a decade after giving that man's campaign money away.
The cleanup
After Epstein died in August 2019, Richardson's camp went further than denial. A statement through attorney Jeff Brown, a former federal prosecutor, said a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York had told them Richardson was "neither a target, subject nor a witness."
SDNY did not agree. In emails from Aug. 19, 2019, released this year:
An SDNY official told Brown that parts of the statement "remain inaccurate."
Prosecutors had said Richardson was not a target or a witness, but they had not ruled out "subject."
Inside DOJ, one email that day called the episode "so, so frustrating."
Brown's proposed fix still misstated the government's position.
The prosecutor wrote that SDNY did not "currently intend" to subpoena Richardson or ask to speak with him.
So the public was told Richardson had been cleared, while the prosecutors were telling his lawyer the clearance was wrong.
Accounts differ on who issued the statement. The emails show Brown negotiating its wording with SDNY. Scripps News, citing one unnamed source, reported that Richardson put it out without consulting his lawyer.
That same summer, SDNY asked New Mexico to stop its own investigation. Former Attorney General Hector Balderas says it did. He now says the released files show federal prosecutors shared more with defense attorneys than with New Mexico.
The allegations
Two accounts accuse Richardson of abuse. Neither was tested in court.
The first is Virginia Giuffre's. In a 2016 deposition, unsealed in 2019 and again in 2024, she testified that Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein instructed her to go to Bill Richardson, along with other powerful men. She said she was sent to New Mexico but could not recall exactly where or when. Scripps has reported that she described being trafficked to him more than twice, at about 17 and 18, and that she gave his name to the FBI. Richardson called her account false and said he never met her. Giuffre died in April 2025. Her memoir does not name him.
The second appears in the Truth Commission's August interim report. It cites a woman identified as "Jane Doe 4" who alleges she was abused at the ranch and trafficked to New Mexico for sex with Richardson. The commission says it could not verify her account, and it has not said publicly which record her account comes from.
No record shows the FBI ever interviewed Richardson. SDNY told his lawyer in 2019 it had no plans to.
Where it goes now
The state inquiry most focused on the Richardson years is now in political trouble.
The Truth Commission, created unanimously by the House in February, has received 132 Richardson-era records from the State Records Center. The agency's head described them as mostly routine callback memos and travel notes. The commission reported in August that 227 Epstein flights touched Albuquerque or Santa Fe between 1992 and 2019. It found about 30 more potential victims, and said Epstein likely got "preferential treatment" from New Mexico law enforcement.
Since that report, the commission has been fighting itself:
Sept. 1. Chair Andrea Romero quit her job with a district attorney's office after Attorney General Raúl Torrez told DAs that lawmakers cannot hold those jobs.
Late September. Republican members accused Romero of cutting a reference to Deb Haaland from the interim report. Romero disputes it.
Oct. 8. The commission said it would depose Haaland, Rep. Melanie Stansbury and former AG Gary King. Members split publicly over whether they will meet the Dec. 31 deadline.
Oct. 15. Rep. Andrea Reeb resigned her House seat, leaving the four-member panel with three.
Torrez's office reopened its criminal investigation on Feb. 19 and searched the ranch on March 9. On Aug. 5 it sued the Justice Department for the unredacted files. DOJ says privacy orders bar their release, and no ruling has been reported.
In February, UNM Hospital quietly took the Richardson name off its children's pavilion. The hospital says the change was about wayfinding.
Richardson isn't here to answer for his 2019 statements. But they were made through his spokesperson and his lawyer, and the files now contradict them.
This story is built from Justice Department Epstein files released since December 2025, as reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Albuquerque Journal, Source NM, Scripps News, KRQE, KFDA and the Tampa Bay Times; from the Truth Commission's Aug. 5, 2026 interim report; and from Richardson's 2019 public statements. Much of what the files contain is known through press accounts. The Richardson Center documents come from third-party transcriptions not yet matched to DOJ originals. The 2010 island visit is described in emails but not proven, and the abuse allegations have never been tested in court. Questions were sent Oct. 20 to Global Reach, attorney Jeff Brown and former Gov. Charlie Crist. Global Reach, whose website says the Bill Richardson Center for Global Engagement was consolidated into it, replied that it is an independent nonprofit formed after Richardson's death, that he was never affiliated with it, and that questions should go to his family. Brown and Crist have not responded. Responses will be added with a dated update. We are looking for anyone who worked for Richardson, at the governor's office, the Department of Public Safety or the Richardson Center, who handled Epstein scheduling, travel or correspondence, and the DOJ originals of the 2016 and 2017 Richardson Center files. Tips and corrections: [email protected] or 505-932-9060.