Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Former New Mexico AG Gary King Faces New Epstein Scrutiny (Part 1) (9/9/26)

Transcript

Former New Mexico AG Gary King Faces New Epstein Scrutiny (Part 1) (9/9/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. When it comes to New Mexico and Jeffrey Epstein,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: there is a lot that still needs to be explained.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of people from New Mexico that
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: had very, very close ties to Jeffrey Epstein that still
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: refuse to admit it. And one of those people, according
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to all reports, is none other than former New Mexico
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Attorney General Gary King. Now, Epstein's family... purchased the ranch
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: from the King family. Then, of course, Mr. King himself
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: met with Jeffrey Epstein in 2010, and he also accepted
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: money from Jeffrey Epstein's companies in 2014. Oh, and by
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the way, he also flew on a private Jed Epstein
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: help charter later that year while he was running for governor. Now,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Deb Haaland, who's the current Democratic governor nominee down in
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: New Mexico, she was also on the flight. in 2014.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: And for all these years, Mr. King really hasn't had
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: much to say about Jeffrey Epstein. But now that he's
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: forced to say something, of course, it's the same story
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: we've heard time and time again. I hardly knew him.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I had no idea what he was doing or what
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: he was. And you got the wrong guy. So today,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: we have an article from the Santa Fe New Mexican
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and the headline, He wasn't my friend. Former New Mexico
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: AG Gary King tries to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: This article was authored by Clara Bates. Former New Mexico
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Attorney General Gary King says his ties to Jeffrey Epstein
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: have been exaggerated, and that the legislative panel formed to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: investigate Epstein hasn't reached out to hear his side of
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the story. About ten years too late, Mr. King. Your
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: story might have been important previously, right? When people were,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you know, actually investigating Jeffrey Epstein and what he was
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: up to? Might have been the right time to come forward. King, 71,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: is perhaps the most prominent living New Mexico politician accused
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: of having close ties to the lay financier and convicted
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: sex offender. The New Mexican reported in March that King,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: who was Attorney General for eight years when Epstein owned
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a ranch in the state, had more contact with Epstein
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: after Epstein's guilty plea to a child sex crime than
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was previously known, based on emails released by the U.S.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Department of Justice earlier this year. And remember, the timeline's crucial.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: You can't run around and say you had no idea
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: what Jeffrey Epstein was after he was already convicted. But unfortunately,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the vast majority of people that we talk about, it's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: all after the fact. So they really don't have any
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: kind of defense, right? No tenable ground. King met Epstein
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: for tea in Santa Fe in 2010, accepted campaign donations
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: from Epstein's companies in 2014, and flew on a private jet.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Epstein helped charter later that year while running for governor.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Deb Haaland, the current Democratic gubernatorial nominee, was running for
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: lieutenant governor then and was also on that September 8,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: 2014 flight. King didn't respond to several calls from two
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: New Mexican reporters in February. However, in two phone interviews
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: this week, King said he met Epstein only once, was
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: unaware of the 2014 donation made under the name of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Epstein's companies, were from Epstein, and didn't know he helped
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: charter the private plane. Sure doesn't know a whole lot,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: does he? Bet you he knew a whole lot about
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: people selling drugs. Bet you he knew a whole lot
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: about people committing white-collar fraud. But when it comes to
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein, and the shit Epstein was up to, no idea.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And mind you, this was the Attorney General of the state.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: But he has no idea. Okay, I guess the lady
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: that ran the hotel I stayed at down in New Mexico,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I guess she knows more than the Attorney General did.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: There's no information out there that you have or that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: anybody else has that I did him any favors, that
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I socialized with him, that we were friendly in any way,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: King said. There are people that are making up stuff
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: about that out there, but none of it's true. He
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: wasn't my friend. Well, I don't need to make anything up.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: We have the emails. We have the correspondence. And we
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: also know that you're not just meeting him for tea
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: for no reason. King also defended the fact that as
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Attorney General, he didn't investigate Epstein, following Epstein's 2008 guilty
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: plea to solicitation of prostitution with a minor in Florida. Well, okay, great. Fine.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Let's just be generous and give him that. Why were
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you associating with him? If he was a known child molester,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: somebody that solicited, quote-unquote, a child prostitute, which doesn't even exist,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: why are you still spending time with him? Why are
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: you meeting him for tea? Why are you meeting up
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: with him for anything besides busting his fucking head open?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I have freely admitted all along that we solicited campaign
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: contributions from him, as we did from lots and lots
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: of people, but I never did him any favors or
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: looked the other way or did any of those kinds
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: of things based on either knowing him or receiving campaign
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: contributions from him, King said. The New Mexico House of
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Representatives formed an investigative subcommittee in February to examine Epstein's
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: activities in the state. potential crimes that occurred at his
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Zorro ranch, and possible legislative fixes. Separately, the State Department
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: of Justice is running a criminal investigation looking to charge
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: individuals connected to Epstein's crimes. I have a funny feeling
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: that's going to come up bust. Because they're not going
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to be willing to go after the people they should
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: go after. I mean, you have a slam dunk when
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you're talking about people like Indyke and Kahn, people like
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Leslie Groff, people like Sarah Kellen Vickers. They were all involved.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And there is a money trail for all of it.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: But of course, that's not what they're interested in. What
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: they're interested in is trying to make it look like
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: they're doing something. But until somebody's in cuffs, until we
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: have a case, I really don't want to hear it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Although King expected to be called to testify by the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Legislative Truth Commission by now, he hasn't been. Maybe they're
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: not really interested in the truth that much, King said.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Certainly nobody in the AG's office has ever called me
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: to talk to me about it, so no, nobody's been interested. Well,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that was the whole entire idea. Nobody was interested because
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: they didn't want to drag this back up. And if
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: this debate wasn't forced, nobody would be talking about it.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: And that's just the truth. A spokesperson said the commission
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: is following the evidence and acting upon our investigation in
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: due course. While we will be calling on persons of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: interest directly, we also welcome additional sources and encourage government
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: officials with relevant information to reach out to our commission.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Pam Armstrong, responding to questions on behalf of the commission's
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Democratic members, Representative Andrea Romero and Mariana Anaya wrote in
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: an email, Like everything else, it has to devolve into
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: bitch-ass politics. Nobody can just get up there and say,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: you know what, let's put our bullshit to the side
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: And let's try and figure this out. What, those other
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: little petty fights aren't still going to be there? Of
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: course they are. Epstein purchased the ranch he named Zorro
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: in 93 from Gary King's father, former governor Bruce King,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and his family, large landowners in the southern Santa Fe
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: County area. As King heard it from his family members,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Epstein was driving around looking for ranch land to buy
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: around the Galistio Basin when he saw a hilltop near Stanley.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and asked his real estate agent who owned the land.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: His real estate agent reached out to the King family,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and they made an offer to buy the land there,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: King said. The sale offer was the first the family
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: had ever heard of Epstein, he said. Yeah, certainly not
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the last. Might have been the first you heard from him.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: And after you heard that he was molesting kids, that
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: should have been the last, right? But I guess not.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Epstein paid around $ 3 million for the property, King said,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: which records show amounted to around 7,600 privately deeded acres,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: not included leased public land. Epstein associate, Glaine Maxwell, said
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: in an interview with the U.S. Department of Justice last
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: year that Epstein cast a wide net in his search
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: for property. The two of them visited Montana, Utah, and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: New Mexico. And he just loved New Mexico, she said. Yeah,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: he loved the age of consent. He loved the fact
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: that it was 16 and he wouldn't have to register there.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: That's what he loved. Like, are people for real? Oh yeah,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein just loved the beautiful sunsets in the New
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Mexican desert. It was no surprise Epstein wanted the property,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: King said, rattling off the names of famous people that
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: have purchased land in the Santa Fe area. Oh well,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: in that case. King said his family had little connection
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to Epstein after the purchase. Over the years, King heard
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: about workers attending church in Stanley, but he didn't have
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: any personal knowledge of Epstein's activities there. Epstein would come in,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: spend a few weeks, or something like that, and then leave,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: as King understood it. Man, that must be wild. Be
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the Attorney General of the state and have no idea? Meanwhile,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: people that are running hotels and motels, people at gas
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: stations know that something bad's going on at the ranch?
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: No wonder New Mexico's in such a piss-poor state. King
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: remembers only a handful of phone calls with Epstein over
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the years, the first of which was in 2006 to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: solicit campaign donations. Epstein donated $ 15, 000 to King's campaign for
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Attorney General, the New Mexican reported, in 2006. King this
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: week said he reached out to everybody who might be
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: interested in making a contribution. Now look, this was in 2006,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't after the conviction. So he can try
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and use that as defense, but come on. The sharks
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: were already circling, and the investigation into Epstein was fully underway.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: You mean to tell me that the Attorney General Had
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: no idea what was going on? I mean, come on.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: He was somebody who lived in the area and indeed
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: was a businessman. We reached out to and solicited contributions
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: from pretty much everybody that we knew, King said. After
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Epstein's 2006 arrest in Florida, on accusations of soliciting sex
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: from girls, King told the New Mexican he planned to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: return the money to avoid any appearance of impropriety. I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: don't think I've ever met him personally, he said in 2006.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: He knows other members of my family better. King said
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: this week he doesn't remember saying he would return the funds.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I don't recall ever returning any funds that he would
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: have given. In 2006, he said, King won the election
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and took office in 2007. The following year, Epstein pleaded
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution and soliciting prostitution
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: in Florida in a deal with widely criticized as lenient.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: After Florida police identified dozens underage victims accusing Epstein of abuse,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Epstein served 13 months in jail and was placed on
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: house arrest in Florida until July of 2010. Not long
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: after Epstein's house arrest ended, he decided to reach out
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: to King for a meeting. So he has no room
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: to argue here, okay? Epstein was already convicted and you
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: met him for tea. Now imagine if some child molester,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: some abuser of kids, hits you up and says, hey,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you know what? Maybe we should meet up for some tea.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: What do you think? Pretty sure I know the answer
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: that most of you would give. In King's telling, Epstein
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: reached out to arrange a meeting in August 2010 because
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: he wanted to express his condolences for Bruce King, who
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: died the year before. They ordered two pots of tea
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: at Ginger Bar and Bistro, King said, and chatted about
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: his father. It seems to be sort of a human
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: thing if somebody wants to express their condolences to accept that,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: King said. Oh yeah, from a convicted child molester. I'm just,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you know, showing decorum. I'm just doing the honorable thing,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: like Prince Andrew said. Asked whether he had concerns since
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Epstein had just come off his child sex crime sentence,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: King said, as a former defense attorney, he was acquainted
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: with people who had been in jail. What does that
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: even mean? Yeah, that was your professional job. But you
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: have these kind of friends in your personal life? Okay,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I guess. My upbringing was such that I had been
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: taught to be polite and compassionate to every human being.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: And so I don't perceive talking to Mr. Epstein to
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: be anything other than being polite or compassionate, he said.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I guess that's one way to explain it. Then there's
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the other way. And that way is that you just
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: don't give a fuck that he was molesting kids. King
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: said he doesn't think that Epstein and Bruce King kept
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: in touch after the sale of the ranch. but his
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: father was well-known and respected, so he wasn't surprised Epstein
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: wanted to pay his condolences. It's possible Epstein appreciated being
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: connected with the state's political elite, King said, but his
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: father had been out of office since 95. So do
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: you think that he had no connections anymore? His son's
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: running for attorney general? They're one of the richest families
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: in the whole state? But they have no connections? Nobody
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: that they can reach out to on Epstein's behalf? Nobody
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: they can set Epstein up with? Okay. Asked whether it's
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: possible Epstein wanted to connect with King as Attorney General,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: he said, I don't know that anybody ever perceived me
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: as being particularly powerful, but yeah, if you look back
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: at it over the course of time, it might be
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: that he thought that being friendly to me was what
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: might be beneficial to him at some point in the future.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I can't speak to that because I wasn't inside his head.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: King remembered at the Jinja meeting, the two also talked
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: about the Santa Fe Institute and where Epstein knew prominent
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Nobel laureate physicist Murray Gellman. King, who trained as a chemist,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: was interested in whether I might be able to meet
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: this Nobel Prize winner and curious about the Institute in general.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: King never got an introduction to anybody at the Santa
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Fe Institute from that, he said. Well, Jeffrey Epstein had serious,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: serious ties to the Santa Fe Institute and to Murray Gellman.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And when I went to the Santa Fe Institute, they
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: didn't want to talk at all. They had nothing to say.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: In fact, they sent one of their goons to escort
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: me off the campus. And I find it laughable that Mr.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: King is acting like he needed Jeffrey Epstein to set
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: up some kind of meeting with Mr. Gentleman. You mean
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: to tell me his family, the King family, couldn't reach
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: out to the Santa Fe Institute and get the meeting?
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Of course they could. So that's not really an excuse,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, that holds any water. And like most
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: of the nonsense we hear coming from people that were
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: adjacent to Epstein, it doesn't really hold up when compared
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to the contemporaneous evidence. So, in the next episode, we're
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: going to pick up where we left off, and that's
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: with 2014 donations. All the information that goes with this
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box.