BS Summary: This video contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Unattributed Quote, and Indoctrination, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 36.1% saturation with 317 hits. Analysis detected 1,603 faulty-reasoning hits from 878 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 91% and a BS Rank of 94% (1,023 of 16,813 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 93.90% of the video peer group.
What used to be Zorro Ranch is off a two-lane road going the back way between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, right on the edge of the radio signal from AM station KIVA.
I'm Eddie Aragon, the rock of talk radio.
Eddie Aragon has been hosting his show here for 14 years.
We've been covering the Epstein stuff since inception.
A lot of people with concern were picking up the phone and calling me with various tips or ideas.
One of those tips, an unsigned email, came in late 2019.
The big part of the email that really impacted my decision to call the FBI is the fact that you had mention of two women buried in the hills outside Zorro Ranch.
By that point, Jeffrey Epstein had been dead for months.
Tonight, a billionaire once connected with some of the most powerful figures in the world arrested.
After his arrest earlier that year in July, investigations into Epstein's sexual abuse ensnared his other properties, but the FBI never searched Zorro Ranch and its 26,000 square foot mansion Epstein built overlooking the desert with a pool, tall fireplaces, and chandeliers, an opulent library.
According to documents released by the DOJ, federal investigators told a top FBI official, "At this time, we don't have probable cause for a search."
Do you think the feds should have searched the ranch back in '19?
Absolutely.
In fact, that was why we gave them evidence.
Hector Balderas was the New Mexico attorney general who had opened his own investigation into Epstein.
We were contacted by the New York DOJ and they asked us to stop interviewing some of the survivors that we were both targeting.
They didn't want to create duplicate testimony and potentially put at risk the case.
Did that seem reasonable to you?
>> It's very common.
You you pick who's got the bigger hammer and you work together.
What was unusual, he says, is how federal prosecutors then went dark instead of sharing information later that could have helped New Mexico bring state charges.
He only found out about the unsubstantiated tip Eddie Aragon reported, for example, when the DOJ started releasing its Epstein files last year.
I believe the first cover-up was in 2019 with me.
The former Justice Department official who helped lead the DOJ's Epstein investigation at the time did not respond to our request for comment, and a current DOJ spokesperson says if new investigations uncover potential federal crimes, we stand ready to work closely with our law enforcement partners to prosecute.
Epstein's former ranch is right past this fence here.
His house is up on that ridgeline, but in the shadow of the front gate, people have put up signs.
They've posted pictures trying to keep the focus on the survivors and the investigations.
Rachel Benavidez grew up in New Mexico and remembers the first time driving into Zorro at the age of 22.
There was a sense of fear.
There was a sense of isolation.
Newly certified as a massage therapist, she says she met Epstein a couple months later and was sexually assaulted by him repeatedly.
When his face was, you know, all over the news, it was like, "Oh my god."
Like, I literally it was like a visceral response.
I think I cried for, I don't know, two days.
Couldn't believe it.
I was I thought I was the only one.
Do you feel like there were missed chances to hold him accountable?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Now, the state of New Mexico is on its own hunt for the truth.
The attorney general there ordered a search of the property in March, and the New Mexico Statehouse unanimously green-lighting a bipartisan truth commission this spring to investigate.
That's what the truth commission's about.
They're looking at this open space and they're saying something more happened here on this land.
Sky and Amanda Roberts offered to meet us near the ranch, where their sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, was trafficked and assaulted by Epstein for years, later becoming one of his most prominent accusers.
We believe you.
We hear you.
Many other survivors crediting her bravery for giving them courage to come forward.
Now, a cross bearing Virginia's name stands just outside the ranch entrance.
It's really hard to look at that gate >> [snorts] >> and think that that's the gate my sister went through, like to the gates of hell.
Of course, some of the horrific things have happened here because look how far away this is from anyone.
It almost gives an abuser this perception that I can do whatever I want here.
And no one will know.
You can scream as loud as you want and no one will hear you.
And that's why it was so important for us to show up.
This is another chapter that we must take a look at.
New Mexico investigators say they also want to see the DOJ's unredacted Epstein documents.
No comment from the Justice Department on that.
We'll have much We thank you for watching and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.
Analysis
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