Deb Haaland Campaign Responds to Why Her Name is in the Epstein Files

Native Vote 2026. In a flight manifest discovered among the millions of documents in the Epstein files, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and current New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) is listed as having taken a chartered flight from New Mexico to Washington, D.C., in 2014.

The flight manifest was among the files that have been partially released in highly redacted form by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The manifest lists JEGE, LLC as the client. JEGE, LLC was established in the U.S. Virgin Islands to own and operate private aircraft used by Epstein. 

Haaland was one of five passengers on the flight from Santa Fe Municipal Airport (now Santa Fe Regional Airport) to Washington Dulles. The flight originated on the evening of Sept. 8, 2014, and arrived in the early morning hours of Sept. 9, 2014. She traveled with former New Mexico Attorney General and then-gubernatorial candidate Gary King while she was running for lieutenant governor.

This plane was not Epstein’s jet. It was a private aircraft chartered through a private company using funds from the King campaign. Deb Haaland had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s role in connecting Gary King with the private jet company.

“Jeffrey Epstein is a despicable predator who committed heinous crimes, and Deb strongly supports a full investigation into the crimes committed both in New Mexico and abroad. Deb never had any interaction with him, and the way in which the plane was chartered was never communicated to her,” Hannah Menchhoff, spokesperson for Deb for New Mexico, said in a statement emailed to Native News Online.

On the same day as the flight, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that King had pledged to repay more than $30,000 in campaign funds received from Epstein. King said he was unaware that the funds had come from companies owned by Epstein.

The manifest was part of a series of emails in the Epstein files that included Gary King asking Jeffrey Epstein to borrow his jet for a trip to Washington, D.C. Instead, Epstein directed his staff to obtain a quote for a chartered jet, and his staff then worked to arrange the charter flight.

King had a longstanding relationship with Epstein. King’s father, Bruce King, who served three terms as governor of New Mexico, sold Zorro Ranch to Epstein. King returned donations from Epstein in 2008, accepted additional contributions in 2014 through trusts and LLCs, and was later required to return those funds. An email also shows that King and Epstein met in 2010.

Haaland has a long record of advocating for trafficking survivors and calling for accountability for Jeffrey Epstein. As a member of Congress in 2019, Haaland called for a full investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s wrongdoing.