NM Rep. Melanie Stansbury's Campaign Director Is Using Coercive Tactics to Silence My Epstein Reporting.
The congresswoman who claims to be seeking justice for Epstein survivors now has her campaign manager using the same victim-silencing techniques against me that Epstein's thugs used against survivors.
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Earlier this week, a prominent New Mexico elected official and friend of mine received a phone call from a man named Brandon Padilla. His message was clear. You’re friends with Alisa, right? We need you to talk to her.
Padilla is the Campaign Manager for Representative Melanie Stansbury — the congresswoman representing New Mexico’s First Congressional District, according to his LinkedIn profile. He’s also a Senior Advisor for Deb Haaland for New Mexico. Haaland is the former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and current frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
For months, I’ve been trying to get an interview with Stansbury, and no one from her office has ever responded. Not even a canned email. Not a polite She’d love to chat but she’s just so busy. I reached out through mutual friends. I reached out through her official press channels. Nothing. Until this.
Padilla was calling to deliver a message: tell Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez to stop being critical of Representative Stansbury and the New Mexico Epstein Survivors Truth Commission. He chose to assign this task to someone who needs the state’s Democratic establishment on her side. So, really, the threat was double edged. Quiet your friend, if you know what’s best for YOU.
I’m a lifelong democrat. I was initially very proud of Stansbury and the Truth Commission, and my public posts from 2025 and early 2026 reflect that. I undertook reading the Epstein files that dropped in January in hopes my journalism skills might be helpful to the congressional committee Stansbury is part of, and to the state’s commission. What I quickly learned, however, is that their efforts to “get to the truth” and to “get justice for survivors” does not include anything that might hurt their own party or friends — meaning, depressingly, that much of what they’re doing is public relations theater, damage control in the wake of the January file drop that let the world know just how badly New Mexico’s power structures failed Epstein’s victims and protected the Epstein Class here.
Now. I do not know whether Melanie Stansbury told Brandon Padilla to make that call. She doesn’t talk to me, so I cannot ask her. What I do know is this: either she directed it, or she didn’t. Both possibilities are a problem for her.
If she directed it: a sitting United States congresswoman dispatched her campaign manager to pressure an elected official to silence a journalist covering child trafficking accountability, all while publicly performing concern for the survivors. A name exists for that, and the name is not flattering.
If she didn’t direct it: her campaign manager is running unsanctioned pressure operations to silence journalists in her name, without her knowledge, and she either doesn’t know or doesn’t care what is being done on her behalf. Which raises an obvious question about what else he’s doing that she might or might not know about.
Those are the only two options, Representative Stansbury. Your constituents — and mine — would like to know which one it is.
The elected official Padilla called to pressure into silencing me did not respond as he’d hoped. Instead, she asked him the obvious question.
Why aren’t you calling Alisa yourself?
Padilla’s answer: “We’re afraid she will spin it the wrong way.”
He was right, of course. I would absolutely “spin” their narrative “the wrong way,” from their perspective, because I don’t SPIN at all. And they realize this. That’s why they don’t call me back. They don’t want to have to answer difficult questions, like “What are you going to do about the fact that John J. Kelly, Epstein’s personal Power of Attorney for the purchase of Zorro Ranch and a two-time US Attorney for the District of New Mexico, never investigated Epstein and currently, as we speak, is a mayoral appointee to the City of Albuquerque’s Ethics Board in your district, and if your answer is ‘nothing,’ how do you reconcile that with your teary-eyed social media posts and TV appearances demanding justice for the survivors?”
The fact that Padilla thinks “spinning stories the RIGHT way” is what journalists are FOR is a sobering indictment of the sorry state of the free press in America generally and New Mexico in particular.
To her credit, my elected official friend told me she explained the situation to Padilla in case he, who has a degree in journalism from the Univ. of New Mexico, might not have understood that people with Substack newsletters can also be real journalists, just like, say, Larry Barker, a local TV investigative reporter.
“You call Larry Barker back, even if you don’t like what he’s asking. Right? But you haven’t done that with Alisa. Why not?”
Padilla’s response was basically to admit to something I’ve intuited over the past week: New Mexico democrats find my coverage of the New Mexico Epstein coverup inconvenient and threatening, so they are running a behind-the-scenes narrative control operation around me, seeking to discredit me with the public.
Friends, I want to be clear with you about how quickly these folks are escalating in their retaliation against me for exposing corruption and coverups in their own ranks. I also want you to understand that the techniques they are using — attempted character assassination, followed, when that doesn’t work out as they’d hoped, by contacting people in their target’s inner circle to ‘ask questions about them’ is EXACTLY the playbook used by Epstein’s own private investigators in Florida, as outlined in emails between them in the DOJ files. This is textbook witness intimidation, being carried out against a journalist. I also want to be very clear that organizations that are willing to go to these lengths to silence people should be seen as having the potential to further escalate, to more permanent means. I take this very seriously, and have contacted the appropriate organizations to make them aware of what’s happening. I am also telling all of you. I ask that you save this article, print it out, store it in a safe place.
So. Who is Brandon Padilla, and why should Melanie Stansbury’s constituents care what he does in her name?
Grab a coffee. Have a seat.
I’m so glad you asked.
A Man of Strong Public Convictions
In June 2019, Brandon Padilla was a media assistant in Mayor Tim Keller’s communications department in Albuquerque. He was, by all accounts, a passionate advocate for public safety. So passionate, in fact, that approximately two weeks before his arrest, he took to social media to declare that drunk drivers should be “made an example of.”
Then, on a Thursday night, Padilla was pulled over outside the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Albuquerque. His lights were off. He told officers he had not been drinking. He blew a .08 — exactly the legal limit — and was arrested for DWI. KRQE News captured the body camera footage, which is a marvel of unintentional self-revelation. On the tape, Padilla repeatedly tries to leverage his city communications job to avoid arrest. He tells the officer he was out to pick up his talking points for a big press event the next day. He asks if the officer follows the news. He mentions he works with the police. The officer’s response: “Okay, turn around and put your hands behind your back. You’re under arrest for DWI.” He resigned the next day.
You HAVE to watch this guy try to pull rank with the cops. This is the actual lapel cam APD footage of Padilla’s drunk driving arrest. Entitlement doesn’t even begin to describe this lying sack of crap.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the man heading Stansbury’s campaign — and she hired him AFTER this happened, knowing exactly what he is. The man currently calling elected officials to manage talking points about suppressing journalism was, at twenty-four, literally invoking his talking points job to try to talk his way out of handcuffs. The through line is so clean it almost writes itself.
Now. I want to be fair here. People make mistakes. People drink and drive and get caught and face consequences and grow and change and become better humans. That happens. That is a real thing. In New Mexico, it’s practically a political rite of passage.
What is also a real thing is the pattern, with Padilla.
A man who publicly performed moral outrage about drunk driving while privately doing exactly what he was condemning. Who managed the public message while living a different private reality. Who specialized — and this is the relevant professional skill — in the gap between what is said and what is true.
He has been doing this ever since. At increasingly high levels. For increasingly powerful people. People like Melanie Stansbury, and Deb Haaland.
The Career Arc of a Message Manager
According to his LinkedIn profile — which, unlike certain New Mexico legislators, he has not scrubbed — Padilla has been working for Melanie Stansbury for Congress since February 2021. Five years and four months, across four successive roles: Digital Director, Director of Communications, Deputy Campaign Manager, and, since January 2025, Campaign Manager.
He is, in a very real way, the operation behind Stansbury. He built it. He runs it. He is, in the fullest possible sense, the communications brain of a sitting United States congresswoman. Meaning, he knows how to call reporters back. He chose not to, in my case. He chose intimidation instead.
Since January 2025 — the same month he became Campaign Manager for Stansbury — he has simultaneously held the title of Senior Advisor for Deb Haaland for New Mexico.
Same man. At the top of both of these highly visible campaigns. Because in New Mexico, a drunk-driving arrest that should have ended a man’s career in public service made the Democratic party establishment folks sit up and say, Now, him? HIM, we love.
For those keeping score at home: the person running suppression strategy against a journalist covering the Epstein Truth Commission is currently embedded at the highest levels of both New Mexico’s congressional race and the most significant Democratic gubernatorial campaign in the state.
Which brings us to Deb Haaland. And a plane. And a man named Gary King.
A Brief History of New Mexico Democrats and Epstein’s Frequent Flyer Program
In September 2014, Deb Haaland — then running for lieutenant governor alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gary King — boarded a private jet at Santa Fe Municipal Airport bound for Washington, D.C.
The jet had been chartered by JEGE LLC. You may not recognize that name. Jeffrey Epstein certainly would have. It was one of his companies.
This is in the federal Epstein files released by the Department of Justice in January, confirmed by flight logs, corroborated by campaign finance records, and acknowledged by Haaland’s own campaign spokesperson. January, the same month the “Truth” Commission suddenly materialized.
The trip to Washington, per those same records, had been arranged by Bill Richardson — the former New Mexico governor later named as a sexual abuser in the federal Epstein files.
Also on that flight: Gary King, the New Mexico Attorney General who, while Epstein was actively trafficking children through Zorro Ranch, somehow never quite got around to investigating him. The same Gary King whose family actually sold the land for Zorro Ranch to Epstein in 1993, and continued to be his next-door neighbor there. The same Gary King who was soliciting campaign donations from Epstein’s shell companies — $5,000 from JEGE LLC in July 2014, another $5,200 in September, another $5,000 from a second Epstein company the same day they all boarded the plane together.
King told the press in New Mexico he didn’t know the plane was Epstein’s. Many reporters printed it and parroted it without questioning it, aka spun it the right way. But the files are clear. Gary King knew the plane was Epstein’s, because his campaign reached out to Epstein’s people directly to ask for it. Saying this publicly and showing you the email, like I’m about to do, is spinning it the wrong way.
King later promised to return the donations. Campaign finance records show he did not.
Haaland’s campaign insists she had no idea Epstein had anything to do with the plane. That might be true. It might also be true I have been to Mars.
What is actually true is that Haaland is now running for governor of New Mexico, her Senior Advisor is running a damage control operation against the journalist most aggressively covering the Epstein coverup network in New Mexico, and the whole arrangement has the structural elegance of a network that knows exactly what it’s doing.
In a bow tie.
What This Is Actually About
The procurement conflicts surrounding the Truth Commission’s law firm selection are documented. The donation history connecting that firm’s founders to Bill Richardson — who Epstein flew to his island, who was named as an abuser in federal files, whose meetings filled the itinerary of the flight that Haaland and King took on Epstein’s dime — is in the public record. The conflict of interest involving procurement officer Gerardo Paredes, who once worked for the office the current owner of Zorro Ranch is running for in Texas, is documented. The questions about what Zorro Ranch was actually for, and who in New Mexico’s political infrastructure enabled it for decades, remain unanswered because the commission has decided not to ask them. Increasingly, it looks like the commission was formed precisely so those questions would not and COULD not be asked. And now that I’m asking, they’re attempting character assassination and intimidation to silence me.
A Note on Journalism, Democrats, and Why I’m Still Here
I am a lifelong Democrat. I have voted Democratic in every election I’ve voted in, in my adult life. I believed in this Truth Commission. I believed in Melanie Stansbury. I believed in Deb Haaland. When the commission was created by unanimous House vote to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s operations at Zorro Ranch — the 7,600-acre property in Santa Fe County where children were trafficked and abused for decades to collect blackmail material on powerful people while the state of New Mexico looked the other way — I was its believer, not its adversary.
I reached out early and in good faith. I shared my findings. I asked questions. I tried to help. I believed that what I had uncovered in the federal Epstein files — the contractors, the architects, the procurement conflicts, the shell companies, the intelligence infrastructure hiding in plain sight — would matter to people whose stated purpose was finding the truth. To Stansbury, whose voice would shake in her TikTok videos excoriating the coverup for the cameras.
Then I noticed a pattern. Every lead that pointed toward a Republican enabler of Epstein was met with interest. Every lead that pointed toward a Democrat was met with silence.
Some readers have wondered whether my frustration at being ignored as a journalist by these elected officials is self-importance. Whether I am trying to insert myself into the story. Whether this is really about anything beyond one journalist’s bruised ego.
Here is the direct answer: when an elected official refuses to respond to a press inquiry, she is not snubbing one person. She is making a decision about transparency — about whether the public, through the journalists who serve them, gets to ask questions about how their government is spending their money, managing their institutions, and conducting investigations in their name. Representative Stansbury is not ignoring me. She is ignoring the 48,000 Substack subscribers of THE PUGILIST and the 71,000 additional readers on Facebook — and every New Mexican who deserves to know whether the commission created to investigate child trafficking is actually investigating child trafficking and not just saying it is.
I am a journalist with 37 years of experience, a Columbia master’s degree in journalism, thirteen years at the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, three Pulitzer nominations, several journalism prizes, including an Emmy Award for Public Service Journalism from my brief stint as an on-air reporter at WHDH-TV in Boston. I’m now an independent journalist whose publication reaches more readers than every newspaper in New Mexico, currently ranked No. 3 rising for US Politics on Substack; Heather Cox Richardson is No. 2. I am a woman with thirteen generations of roots in this state, a mother who knows and cares deeply what happened to the children at Zorro Ranch. I also know trhat it’s not enough to ask what happened to them. A real investigation must be willing to say who did it, for whom the kompromat was collected, and why. Otherwise, it’s nothing but emotional spectacle for social media likes.
The difference between accountability and its performance is simple: one picks up the phone and calls the journalist back, and answers the damn questions. The other one calls someone else, to try to make the journalist go away.
I’m not budging, folks. But now I’m bracing for them to continue escalating. If past silencing campaigns by this cabal are any indication, I can likely expect them to weaponize government agencies and law enforcement against me. If and when they do, I will tell you immediately. They can try to silence one person, but the truth is still the truth. And the truth, my friends, is a solidly rooted thing. It doesn’t spin. No matter how many threats Brandon Padilla makes.
I offer these posts freely, but your support is necessary and appreciated. Please subscribe, paid if you’re able, like, and share my work if it moves you. You may also leave a one-time or recurring tip in any amount. Just four $25 tips per day keep me doing this full-time.
Alisa!!!!! Dont trust the House Oversight Committee. Esp Garcia. I have been deep diving Epstein for 2 years and have several Epstein survivors ive been helping. I have Epsteins Amazon book receipt on his "erotic slaves" books he purchased. Sent it to the oversight committee multiple times only to see them continuing asking for it. Im so glad I stumbled across your substack bc it is a GOLDMINE. Thank you for this article!!!! Keep up the great work!! If you want the Amazon receipt, pls shoot me a dm and ill send it to you.
This guy sounds like he was trained by kash Patel…