Republican members of the New Mexico House’s Epstein-related special subcommittee are blasting the panel’s process after they say a reference to Democrat gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland’s 2014 flight aboard an Epstein-connected aircraft was removed from the interim report without their knowledge or approval.
Reps. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, and Bill Hall, R-Farmington, said Monday that they have “grave reservations” about Chair Andrea Romero’s handling of the panel’s first interim report, citing unilateral changes, shifting drafts, lack of notice to Republican members, and the unexplained removal of information they say all four members had agreed to include.
The panel has repeatedly been branded by Democrats and allies as a “truth commission,” but it is not an independent commission. It is a special committee of the New Mexico House of Representatives created by House Resolution 1 during the 2026 legislative session. HR 1 directed the speaker to appoint a four-member House special committee, with two majority-party members and two minority-party members, to investigate Zorro Ranch and related allegations of criminal activity and determine whether legislation or other legislative action is needed.
That distinction is now central to the Republican complaint: if the so-called commission is merely being used to protect politically inconvenient Democrats, then the process itself is becoming the story.
According to a press release from the House Republican Leadership Office, Reeb and Hall were “shocked” to learn from Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer’s August 10 press release that the final interim report omitted mention of Haaland’s September 8, 2014 flight aboard an Epstein-connected aircraft.
The Republicans say the Haaland reference was verified by documents made public under the federal Epstein Files Transparency Act, specifically EFTA00310528.
They also say that on August 4, all four members of the House panel agreed to include the reference to Haaland’s flight in the report. But sometime before the report’s release on August 5, the reference was removed without Reeb’s or Hall’s knowledge or approval.
“It is concerning that reference to Haaland’s connection to Epstein appears to have been unilaterally removed from the final interim report,” Hall said.
The allegation lands at a politically sensitive moment. Haaland, a former congresswoman and Biden administration Interior secretary, is running for governor of New Mexico. Any reference to her appearing in an Epstein-related report would be politically explosive, even if the underlying fact involved an Epstein-connected aircraft rather than an allegation of wrongdoing.
That is precisely why Republicans say the omission raises questions.
“This commission is supposed to be about finding the truth, wherever it leads,” Reeb said. “It raises concerns about how decisions are being made when verified information all four members agreed to include is removed.”
Reeb went further, saying, “Deb Haaland is linked to an Epstein-related flight. The only justifiable reason to remove Haaland’s name from the report is to protect her from any political fallout while she is campaigning to be New Mexico’s next governor. This is unacceptable.”
She added, “We must be able to assure the public that political considerations are not influencing what is included, or excluded, from this investigation.”
The process concerns go beyond the Haaland omission.
According to Reeb and Hall, members received what was presented as a final draft around 11:30 p.m. on August 4. But they say Romero continued directing special counsel to make changes into the following morning, including changes made without Republican knowledge or approval.
Then, at 8:06 a.m. on August 5, an embargoed copy of the updated report was distributed to the media without prior notice to the Republican members, the GOP release says. Reeb and Hall say the chaotic process prevented them from reviewing the final report before the August 5 committee hearing.
The timing is notable because HR 1 required the committee to furnish an interim report to House leadership on or before July 31, 2026, with a final report due by December 31.
The report was released days later, on August 5, the same day New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued the U.S. Department of Justice over access to unredacted Epstein-related records.
The interim report itself has already faced criticism for delivering few concrete findings despite months of work, subpoenas, outside legal help, and access to large volumes of records. Reuters reported the report found evidence to date that Epstein abused at least five women and girls at Zorro Ranch between 1996 and 2012, while noting several subpoenas were refused or ignored.
But the new Republican criticism is different. It is not merely that the report was thin. It is that the process may have been manipulated to sanitize politically damaging information about Haaland.
Reeb and Hall are now calling for greater transparency over changes to draft reports and for all members to be included in major decisions going forward. They say they remain committed to the work, but only if it operates as a truly bipartisan process.
That should not be a high bar.
If this House subcommittee is supposed to investigate Epstein’s New Mexico ties without fear or favor, then politically inconvenient names cannot disappear from the final draft in the dark of night.
Otherwise, the so-called “truth commission” risks looking less like a serious investigation and more like a taxpayer-funded political shield for Deb Haaland.