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  2. A State Spends Its Force Abroad and Its Patience at Home
  3. The Security State Turns Its Tools Inward
  4. The Iran War Keeps Exporting Its Costs
  5. Power Turns on Its Witnesses
  6. A Government That Performs Power
  7. Firing Squad Meant to Be Watched
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  11. Who Decides Who Pays
  12. Pressure Campaign Reaches Brazil
  13. Record Caught Up
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  16. Three Ways an Argument Disappears
  17. The Machinery Keeps Running
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  21. Power Was Visible Accountability Was Not
  22. Records Landed Claims Did Not Hold
  23. Projected Power Argument at Home
  24. Washington Is Rationing What the Public Sees
  25. Who Gets to See What Power Is Doing
  26. Power Moves in Days
  27. Four Institutions Four Judges
  28. The Loud Fight Ends
  29. The Bill Came Due
  30. Six Institutions Said No
  31. Saying Stop Is Not Stopping
  32. AI Slowdown Accountability Gap
  33. Cost Arriving Channel Narrowing
  34. The Question Is Who Pays
  35. Washington Offers a Check
  36. Dividend Promise Failing Election Machinery
  37. War Automated Faster Than Accounted For
  38. Nineteen Months
  39. The Election Is Now a Docket
  40. The Rule Is Not the Safeguard
  41. The Price Walked Into an Election
  42. Outrunning Review
  43. Machinery of Who Counts
  44. War's Real Bill Arrives Far From the Gulf
  45. The Legal Justification Comes Last
  46. A Price, Not a Front
  47. The Price of a War Nobody Calls a War
  48. War's Second Front Is Economic
  49. Three Instruments, One Method
  50. Fight Over the Machinery
  51. Documents Caught Up With Statements
  52. Capacity Without Checks
  53. The Machinery Is Not Failing
  54. Coercion Is the Policy
  55. You Cannot Sue a Bond Market
  56. War Washington Cannot End
  57. Blockade and Bond Market
  58. The Bill Comes Due
  59. Money Lost, Surveillance Won
  60. Government Stopped Showing Its Work
  61. Routed Around, Not Repealed
  62. Enforcement Turned Inward
  63. Past the Point It Can Hold
  64. What It Cost to Lose
  65. Who Holds the Veto
  66. Risk Moves Down
  67. The Government Rents Its Surveillance
  68. The Powers Expand, the Checks Sit Empty
  69. The Promise Was Only Worth the Pressure Behind It
  70. The Senate Traded Away Its Leverage
  71. Two Orders and a Shrinking Stockpile
  72. What Money Bought
  73. Money Lost Michigan, Won Missouri
  74. Change the Accounting
  75. Two Clocks
  76. Who Decides What Counts as a Threat
  77. The Claim Arrives First

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In the thread Zorro Ranch Operations

Leon Black at Zorro

On Sunday April 28, 2013, Leon Black flew to Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch in New Mexico on his private plane. Epstein arranged a helicopter for Black's transport from the Santa Fe airport to the property. The coordination sits in two indexed emails between Black's Apollo Global Management assistant and Epstein's executive assistant.

Investigation. , updated . 4 minutes. By .

Santa Fe Municipal Airport (Santa Fe Regional Airport), January 2016.
The terminal at Santa Fe's municipal airport.Photo: Edward Russell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Documents
2
documents
Citations
14
citations
People
3
people
Pages of record
8
pages of record
Reading time
4
minutes to read
Source discipline

11 primary, 3 corroborating, 0 tertiary. 14 citations in all.

  • T1 Primary
  • T2 Corroborating
  • T3 Tertiary
Anchor documents
People in this piece
  • Jeffrey Edward Epstein, Principal, Deceased
  • Leon Black, Adjacent
  • Lesley Groff, Enabler, Immunity recipient
Reading key
Miami HeraldSource 14reportingSarah KellenResearch Vault referenceEditorial essayargumentargument or opinion

The email arrived in Lesley Groff's inbox on Friday April 26, 2013. It came from Melanie Spinella, identified by the signature block as "Assistant to Leon D. Black, Apollo Global Management, LP."

"Hi — Happy Friday! Leon and Debra are flying to Jeffrey's Ranch in Santa Fe on Sunday morning — I will let you know when they are landing — Jeffrey is having someone pick them up. Then Leon, Debra, Jeffrey and two others will fly from Santa Fe to LA (landing at Van Nuys airport — Maguire Aviation South) — I will let you know time so you can arrange a car for them. I need the names of the two going with Jeffrey — thanks!!!" EFTA02140568EE, EFTA02140568 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

Groff's reply was practical. She gave Spinella the names of the two additional passengers on Epstein's return flight. The names are redacted in the indexed corpus version. She also asked for the tail number of the Blacks' plane. Spinella: "Sure — Tail No. is N 624N."

Later that afternoon, Groff updated the Zorro Ranch staff: "ok thanks...Brice/Karen, make sure to coordinate with Larry on this heli ride!..don't want you driving to Santa Fe airport if they are taking a heli! Below is Leon's cell number in case you need it!" EFTA02140913EE, EFTA02140913 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

Epstein had arranged a helicopter to move Leon Black from the Santa Fe airport to the ranch. Larry Visoski, Epstein's personal pilot, was coordinating the onward flight from Santa Fe to Van Nuys.

The Weekend

Sunday April 28, 2013. Leon Black and his wife Debra arrived at Zorro Ranch by private plane (tail N 624N), transferred by helicopter from the Santa Fe airport to the property. At some point on Sunday or Monday, five people boarded Epstein's jet together: Leon Black, Debra Black, Jeffrey Epstein, and two additional passengers whose names were provided by Groff and redacted in the indexed EFTA version. The plane flew to Van Nuys, landing at Maguire Aviation South.

The Financial Context

Leon Black was then the founding Chief Executive Officer of Apollo Global Management, one of the largest alternative-asset managers in the United States. Reporting has established that Black paid Epstein approximately $158 million for tax and estate-planning advice between 2012 and 2017. The source-of-record figure is the October 2020 external report prepared for Apollo's board by the law firm Dechert LLP. The April 28, 2013 ranch visit in EFTA02140568 sits inside that payment period.

What the Record Does Not Show

Who the two redacted additional passengers on Epstein's return flight were. What was discussed at Zorro Ranch over the weekend of April 27-28, 2013. Whether Black was billed for the ranch visit, the helicopter, or the private aviation. Whether the visit is referenced in Dechert's reconstruction of the Black-Epstein advisory relationship. None of those questions is answered by the verified primary source.

Several Items Remain Open

The identities of the two redacted passengers. Any subsequent 2013 correspondence between Black's office and Groff. The full dated record of Black's ranch visits, if more than the April 28 trip is documented in the EFTA corpus. A complete retrieval of Black-Epstein correspondence is the next step.

Documentary artifact

The weekend, interactive

5 events.

Apollo assistant to Zorro Ranch to Van Nuys

The April 26–28, 2013 weekend reconstructed from Groff’s coordination thread with Leon Black’s Apollo assistant. Private plane in, helicopter transfer, onward jet with two redacted passengers.

Spinella sets up the logistics: Sunday morning arrival, Epstein arranging airport pickup, onward flight from Santa Fe to LA (Van Nuys, Maguire Aviation South) with five passengers — Leon Black, Debra Black, Epstein, and two others. Spinella asks Groff for the names of the two additional passengers.

Source, tier 1.EFTA02140568, at justice.govEE, EFTA02140568 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

The two names provided by Groff are redacted in the EFTA indexed version. Their identities are one of the article’s open questions. The tail number — N 624N — identifies the Blacks’ private aircraft.

Source, tier 1.EFTA02140568, at justice.govEE, EFTA02140568 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

Groff updates the ranch staff — named as Brice and Karen — to coordinate with Larry Visoski, Epstein’s personal pilot, on the helicopter transfer from Santa Fe airport to the property. Groff also passes along Black’s cell number for the staff to hold.

Source, tier 1.EFTA02140913, at justice.govEE, EFTA02140913 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

Helicopter transfer rather than the standard car from the airport — a 60-mile land route — establishes the operational register of the weekend.

The plane flies to Van Nuys, landing at Maguire Aviation South. The financial context — Leon Black’s later $158 million in fees to Epstein, documented by the Dechert report commissioned by Apollo — is established in the article body proper.