By Pat Davis, Julian Paras, NM Political Report — The Epstein files revealed lots of new details about people and places connected to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — including former attorney general and candidate for governor, Gary King.
When reporting from New Mexico Political Report and others showed that King used a jet arranged by Epstein during King’s 2014 campaign for governor, King minimized his interactions with Epstein and blamed others, including former Governor Bill Richardson and staff, for booking the trip.
But other emails in the Epstein files show that King wasn’t truthful with those explanations to other media outlets last week. That led us to take a deeper dive into their relationship.
Emails, campaign records and news reports reviewed by New Mexico Political Report detail how King courted a relationship with Epstein through private dining appointments and campaign donations hidden behind corporate fronts to avoid “press coverage” for King who was campaigning on his record prosecuting child sex offenders.
“My staff had told me that Bill Richardson was helping us to arrange for an airplane”
After reporting from New Mexico Political Report and others showed that Gary King arranged for a private jet chartered by Epstein to fly him and others to fundraisers during his 2014 campaign for governor, King told several news outlets, including KOB, that he was unaware of the Epstein connection with this flight.
Gary King: “We didn’t have any reason to know or believe that it was a plane that was owned by Jeffrey Epstein. My staff had told me that Bill Richardson was helping us to arrange for an airplane.” – KOB TV, Feb. 19, 2026
But email records we found in the Epstein files show that Epstein’s staff were responding to a personal request from King himself when they arranged the flight in Aug. 2014.
A relationship going back decades
The King’s family has also been connected to Epstein dating back to at least 1993. At the time, Epstein bought the infamous Zorro Ranch from former Governor Bruce King, who is Gary King’s father. Multiple women have publicly said that Epstein abused them as teen girls or young adults at Zorro Ranch, though investigations into those allegations have never been completed.
Fast forward to 2006 and King was running for attorney general of New Mexico. In 2014, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that, “King gave back $15,000 that an Epstein company called The Zorro Trust had contributed to his campaign for attorney general” following Epstein’s 2006 first arrest.
Two years later, in 2008, Epstein pled guilty to two felony counts of soliciting prostitution. Even though rumors about the abuse had circulated for years, Epstein had now admitted it publicly and under oath. Everyone, including King, was on notice.
King meets with Epstein in Santa Fe after Epstein pleads guilty
In 2010, a staffer in the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office reached out to Epstein and his assistant using official government emails to arrange for an afternoon meeting for Epstein “with AG Gary King” at a Santa Fe restaurant.
By that time, in 2010, Epstein had been an admitted and convicted sex offender for two years. Investigators have since questioned why New Mexico law enforcement officials never required Epstein to register as a sex offender while living on the sprawling Santa Fe County ranch. Although not responsible for maintaining sex offender registries, King’s role as attorney general made him the state’s top law enforcement officer.
At about the same time, Epstein’s activities at the Zorro Ranch were drawing attention from law enforcement. The FBI interviewed the ranch manager in 2007 and learned that Epstein frequently brought women and invited local masseuses to the ranch. Whether federal investigators shared that information with state officials is a subject of the new “Truth Commission” opened by state legislators earlier this month.
King returns to Epstein as he turns his political sights on the governor’s office
The files next show King and Epstein connecting in 2014 as Attorney General King is now aiming to prevent Republican Governor Susana Martinez from earning a second term. Democrats picked Deb Haaland, then-former state party chairperson and future congresswoman and U.S. interior secretary, to be his lieutenant governor.
Two days after Gary King secured the nomination on June 3rd, Epstein’s assistant reached out to King’s fundraiser to say that Epstein was ready to support King’s bid for governor.
Then, on June 18, the King files turn up another email appearing to confirm the details of a conversation between Epstein and King that day wherein King documented Epstein’s pledge to “raise $50,000 for my campaign.”
“Dear Jeffrey,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. It means a lot to have your friendship and support.
I also want to thank you for your personal commitment to raise $50,000 for my campaign. Under New Mexico campaign finance law individuals, PACs and corporations can contribute up to $5,200 per election cycle. Each separate corporation is considered to be a separate giver and can give up to the maximum allowed, as long as the entity was not formed solely for the purpose of giving.
Our June 28, 2014 deadline is coming soon. We are working very hard to meet our goal, so please send in your contribution as soon as possible.”
The sender is redacted for unknown reasons, making it unclear whether this email came from King himself or from a member of his staff during his 2014 campaign run.
The June 28th deadline came and went but according to the New Mexico campaign finance reports (CFIS), the campaign deposited a check for $5,000 from Jege LLC, a company connected to Epstein and registered to his island in the Virgin Islands, on July 7, 2014. Another $5,200 from JEGE was deposited on Sept. 1, 2014.
Epstein donates to King through companies to avoid “press coverage” while King runs on prosecuting child sex offenders
Newly disclosed mails made public in the Epstein files give new insight into potential reasons for the delay.
Following King’s request for donations, Epstein’s attorney, Darren Indyke, flagged for the convicted sex offender that King’s campaign website included a pledge to increase prosecutions for offenses against children.
The lawyer suggested Epstein donate to King through companies to avoid “additional press coverage regarding or accepting of your contribution.”
Epstein agreed and told his attorney to send King money through “co s [companies] or trusts” — which is exactly what they did.
As we previously reported, King accepted a little over $15,000 from Epstein companies between July and September of 2014.
In September 2014, emails show he reached out to Epstein’s assistant requesting to use Epstein’s jet to fly to fundraisers in Washington, D.C. The campaign later paid for the flights after they were chartered by Epstein’s JEGE LLC company.
King told the Albuquerque Journal last week that, “I probably wouldn’t have flown on it if I’d known it was a Jeffrey Epstein jet, even by that point in time.” Emails appear to show that it was King who reached out to schedule the flight.
After campaign filings made those donations public, The Santa Fe New Mexican confronted King about what he would do with donation money from Epstein. King publicly stated he would return the money or donate it to charity. Finance reports show no evidence that refunds occurred.
The New Mexico Department of Justice and State House of Representatives have both launched new investigations into what happened at the Zorro Ranch for all of those years.
In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal last week, he seemed to foreshadow his invite to tell the full story in public. Asked about his meetings with Epstein over time, he simply said, “the Legislature may ask me to come tell them about that, too.”
Thank you for the reporting.
Who th does this guy seriously think he is? Look what happened to the actual Prince?! Also Gary King is absolutely no longer credible he’s a liar and reporters need to ask him for MORE New Mexico names that he knows frequented The so so called Santa Fe Playboy mansion!!!