New Mexico lawyer who served as United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico in the 1990s. In March 1993, before taking that office, he acted as Jeffrey Epstein's attorney-in-fact under a limited power of attorney for the closing of the Zorro Trust's purchase of the Santa Fe County property that became Zorro Ranch. The instrument is in the corpus, and it is narrower than it is often described: it was limited to that one transaction and terminated by its own terms 30 days after the deeds were recorded, which puts its expiry in roughly April 1993, months before he became United States Attorney. Nothing in the corpus shows him acting for Jeffrey Epstein while in office.
Key Findings
- EFTA01305252 (DataSet 10, New Mexico State Land Office lease file): the Limited Power of Attorney itself. 'Done at New York City, New York, on the [3]d day of March, 1993. I, Jeffrey E. Epstein, trustee of the Trust, a New York trust, hereby appoint John J. Kelly as attorney-in-fact and agent to act on my behalf, to do and perform all acts and things necessary to be done'
- EFTA01305252: Same instrument, the scope clause that limits it: granted 'pursuant to that certain one Purchase Agreement da[t]ed February 25, 1993, between Zorro Trust, as purchaser, and King Brothers Ranch, a New Mexico general partnership, King Land & Cattle Company, a New Mexico general partnership, and Pine Canyon Ranch, Inc., a New Mexico corporation, as seller', for a closing in Santa Fe County 'on or about March 4-8, 1993'
- Same instrument, the termination clause: 'This Power of Attorney is limited to matters pertaining to the transactio[n] described herein and shall terminate 30 days following the execution, delivery, and [filing] of record of the deeds from seller to purchaser'. That puts its expiry around April 1993
- EFTA00101481 (DataSet 9): cover letter from Hinkle, Cox, Eaton, Coffield & Hensley to the New Mexico State Land Office enclosing 'two original leases, numbered GM-2791, signed by John Kelly as Attorney-in-Fact for Jeffrey Epstein, Trustee for the Zorro Trust, along with two original Affidavits signed by Mr. Epstein and a certified copy of the Power of Attorney between Mr. Epstein and John Kelly'. Received by the State Land Office 16 March 1993
- Jeffrey Epstein's accompanying affidavit extends the authority to the state land leases: 'By this Affidavit, I further authorize John J. Kelly to execute any documents necessary in connection with State Agricultural Lease No. GM2791' (1,158.97 acres of state grazing land, Township 12N Range 9E)
- EFTA00101481 and EFTA01305252 both carry the State Land Office instrument page recording it: 'MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUMENT: Power-of-Attorney, John J. Kelly; Affidavit, Jeffrey E. Epstein, Trustee for Zorro Trust. FILE NO: #8793'
- Timing, which the usual framing of this document gets wrong: the power of attorney was executed in March 1993 and self-terminated about a month after the deeds were recorded. The Justice Department's own archive confirms he was United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico by September 1998, when Attorney General Janet Reno named him her Special Representative for the Southwest Border Region; secondary accounts date his start to December 1993. Either way the instrument had expired before he took office, and no corpus document shows him acting for Jeffrey Epstein afterwards