Former Texas state Sen. Don Huffines is converting a New Mexico ranch once owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein into a Christian retreat, a move he says was the purpose behind his 2023 purchase of the property.

Huffines appeared on One America News Network on Tuesday, interviewed by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, where he laid out his vision for the property, now renamed Rancho de San Rafael. The ranch sits about 30 miles outside Santa Fe and spent more than two decades under Epstein's ownership before Huffines acquired it four years after Epstein died in jail, Newsmax reported.

"This was obviously a dark place, and we wanted to put light in a dark place."

Huffines, now a Republican candidate for Texas comptroller, said that transforming the property into a retreat "is the main reason" he bought it and that the plan had been in place "all along." He added simply: "My faith is so strong in Jesus."

Cooperation, not obstruction

Notably, Huffines has positioned himself as fully transparent with investigators. He said he has "always maintained an open line of communication" with law enforcement and went further in a statement worth reading carefully:

"No law enforcement agency has ever approached me to request access, and I have always said unequivocally that any such request would be met with immediate access and full cooperation."

That distinction matters. Huffines isn't blocking anyone. He's saying no one has asked. If there are secrets buried at that ranch, the bottleneck isn't the new owner.

New Mexico finally wants answers

The announcement comes as New Mexico lawmakers unanimously approved legislation this week authorizing a probe into the ranch. That vote wasn't close. It wasn't partisan. Every legislator in the chamber agreed that the property warranted a formal investigation.

State Rep. Marianna Anaya, a Democrat who co-sponsored the legislation, told CNN that Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell had "enablers" in the state. Her account of local knowledge was blunt:

"Our families here in New Mexico have been here for a really long time, and there were whispers."

"People knew what was going on. The fact that there was never a full investigation done means that some balls got dropped."

Anaya is right about the dropped balls, even if she's vague about who dropped them. The ranch operated in plain sight for decades. Epstein entertained there. People whispered. And the institutions charged with protecting the vulnerable did nothing. That's not a mystery. That's a failure of will.

The investigation widens on multiple fronts

The New Mexico probe is just one thread. Rep. Nancy Mace is demanding the CIA produce documentation about alleged connections between the intelligence agency and Epstein. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in France have opened two new investigations linked to Epstein, focusing on alleged sexual abuse and financial crimes, and are urging individuals who allege harm to come forward.

Attorney Sigrid McCawley, whose firm has represented hundreds of Epstein accusers, told Reuters that "many of the survivors had experiences" at the New Mexico property. The specifics remain thin, but the pattern is familiar: Epstein operated across multiple properties, multiple states, and multiple countries, and the full scope of what happened at each location has never been established.

The question that should haunt every official who looked the other way is straightforward: how does a convicted sex offender maintain a sprawling ranch for over twenty years, host visitors, generate whispers across an entire community, and never attract a serious investigation?

Redemption over ruin

There's something fitting about Huffines's plan. The instinct when confronting a place associated with evil is often to demolish it, fence it off, pretend it never existed. Huffines chose the opposite. He bought the property, renamed it, and is turning it toward something rooted in faith.

Whether you view the gesture as symbolic or substantive, it stands in sharp contrast to the years of institutional paralysis that allowed Epstein to operate freely. Huffines posted on X that proceeds from the sale benefited Epstein's victims, according to attorneys for Epstein's estate. He's cooperating with law enforcement. He's not hiding anything.

The people who should be answering questions aren't the ones who bought the ranch after the monster died. They're the ones who knew what the monster was doing while he was alive.

Some of them are still out there. The probes in New Mexico, Washington, and Paris suggest the world is finally getting around to finding them.