Reps. Andrea Reeb and Bill Hall say all four commission members agreed to include a 2014 flight record involving Deb Haaland before the reference disappeared from the report released Aug. 5

Damien Willis, Organ Mountain News

SANTA FE - Two Republican members of New Mexico’s Survivors' Truth Commission are questioning why a reference to former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland disappeared from the commission’s first interim report, alleging the change was made after members had agreed to include it.

Reps. Andrea Reeb of Clovis and Bill Hall of Farmington said Tuesday that all four commission members agreed Aug. 4 to reference a federal flight record listing Haaland as a passenger on a Sept. 8, 2014 flight from Santa Fe to the Washington, D.C., area.

The interim report released the following morning did not include Haaland’s name.

Commission Chair Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, disputed the lawmakers’ characterization of the process, saying commission members collectively decided not to identify victims, survivors or people whose interactions were tangential, unverified or supported only by fragmentary reporting.

The disagreement comes as the commission faces increasing scrutiny over its work investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s activities and connections in New Mexico.

Earlier this week, Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, separately criticized the commission’s progress, pointing to approximately $750,000 in legal services, 20 subpoenas and more than 100,000 records gathered during the investigation. Sharer also criticized the commission for issuing its interim report after the July 31 deadline established in state law.

The commission has emphasized that its work is ongoing and that the interim report does not represent final findings.

Reeb and Hall challenge drafting process

Reeb and Hall said commission members met Aug. 4 and agreed that the interim report would reference a federal record showing Haaland among the passengers on the 2014 flight.

According to their account, members received what they understood to be a final draft at about 11:30 p.m. Aug. 4.

They allege changes were then made at Romero’s direction before the report was distributed to news organizations shortly after 8 a.m. Aug. 5, without another review by Reeb or Hall.

The Republicans said they did not know the Haaland reference had been removed until after the report was released.

Reeb went further, alleging a political motive.

“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,” Reeb said in a statement.

No evidence presented by Reeb or Hall establishes that political considerations drove the editing decision.

Haaland is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2026.

What the federal record shows

The federal flight manifest at issue lists Haaland among passengers on a Sept. 8, 2014 flight from Santa Fe Municipal Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport.

The aircraft is identified as a Hawker 800XP with tail number N225RP. The record lists JEGE LLC as the client and pilot Larry Visoski as the contact.

Other passengers listed on the manifest include then-New Mexico Attorney General Gary King, Scott Tillman, Chris Khoury and Kaleigh Hubbard.

Separate federal records identify JEGE LLC as an entity connected to Epstein.

The manifest does not list Epstein as a passenger on the flight, and the record itself does not establish wrongdoing by Haaland or any of the other passengers.

That distinction is significant. The dispute before the commission is not an allegation that Haaland participated in Epstein’s criminal conduct, but whether the existence of the flight record belonged in an interim report examining Epstein’s New Mexico connections.

Romero says commission agreed on scope

Romero said she was surprised to learn of Reeb and Hall’s concerns through the press.

“The work of the Truth Commission has been collaborative and bipartisan since its creation,” Romero said in a statement to Organ Mountain News. “I’m shocked to hear of these concerns through the press, as every committee member weighed in on the report and was included in all plans as they were developed.”

Romero said the commission had made a collective decision about whose names should appear in the report.

“Our commission came to a collective decision not to name survivors, victims, or the countless parties with tangential interactions, unverified claims, or fractional reporting, and to keep our interim report and ongoing work rightly focused on perpetrators and enablers,” she said.

Romero did not directly deny that Haaland’s name appeared in an earlier draft.

She said all members worked with the commission’s legal team to develop the report and that each member was responsible for ensuring it reflected the content the commission wanted to convey.

Romero also acknowledged that the commission’s internal process could improve.

“The Commission will be working to improve our internal processes to ensure all members are on the same page going forward,” she said.

She added that the commission remains committed to pursuing credible evidence related to Epstein’s criminal activity in New Mexico and maintaining what she described as an open and transparent process.

Drafts not provided

The dispute ultimately turns in part on documents the public has not seen.

Organ Mountain News asked legislative staff to provide the Aug. 4 draft that Reeb and Hall said contained the Haaland reference, along with the final Aug. 5 interim report, so the two versions could be independently compared.

OMN also requested any available tracked changes or version history showing revisions between the two documents.

Those materials had not been provided as of publication time.

Without the earlier draft, Organ Mountain News cannot independently verify Reeb and Hall’s account of when Haaland’s name appeared in the report, who removed it or whether all four commissioners had agreed to its inclusion.

The commission’s investigation remains ongoing.

Damien Willis is founder and editor of Organ Mountain News. If you have a personal story to share or a lead we should follow up on, reach out at OrganMountainNews@gmail.com or connect with him on X at @damienwillis.