AUGUSTA, Maine — After weeks of silence on a growing federal investigation unfolding in her own backyard, Gov. Janet Mills (D) has suddenly found her voice, not on Maine’s unfolding nonprofit scandal, but on U.S. military action thousands of miles away in Venezuela.
Mills on Sunday publicly demanded answers from the Trump administration over the U.S. operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, calling the move “dangerous” and “unprecedented” and urging Congress to rein in executive authority.
Her comments were swift, pointed, and forceful.
Her silence on Gateway Community Services has been none of those.
While Mills is pressing Washington for explanations about a foreign dictator, she has repeatedly declined to comment on the escalating investigation into Gateway Community Services, a Maine-based nonprofit whose state Medicaid payments were suspended after officials determined there were “credible allegations of fraud.”
That investigation is no longer hypothetical. Federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations have been photographed at Gateway-related locations in Lewiston, signaling that the matter has moved well beyond routine audits and into the realm of federal law enforcement.
Yet the governor who says Americans deserve answers about Venezuela has offered none to Maine taxpayers.
Mills’ criticism of the Venezuela operation focused on transparency, congressional oversight, and the rule of law, themes she has emphasized repeatedly on the campaign trail as she positions herself as a Senate challenger to Republican Susan Collins. She argued that Congress should have been briefed and that the administration must explain the legal justification for its actions.
Those same standards, critics note, have not been applied by Mills to the Gateway case, despite months of mounting questions about oversight failures, public funding, and accountability within Maine’s nonprofit and Medicaid systems.
Republicans and outside watchdogs have accused the Mills administration of stonewalling as the Gateway scandal has deepened, even as federal authorities step in. To date, the governor has not held a press conference, released a detailed statement, or explained what her administration knew and when about the problems at Gateway.
The contrast has not gone unnoticed.
At a time when Homeland Security agents are operating openly in Maine, Mills’ focus on foreign affairs has fueled criticism that she is eager to score political points against President Trump while avoiding politically inconvenient questions at home.
For a governor who says transparency matters, the silence is loud.
And as the Gateway investigation continues to widen, the question facing Maine voters is becoming harder to ignore: why is Janet Mills demanding answers everywhere, except where they matter most to Maine taxpayers?
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="49077 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=49077">1 Comment
After Walz, It Is Now Mill’s Turn!
Mills has been an unmitigated disaster for Maine. She along with the democrat trifecta legislature in the state are a national joke.
She should do the state a favor and like Walz of Minnesota who has stopped his run for office do to the appearances of corruption, Mills should resign from the Senate race . Maine has become an embarrassment to its people .Socially and economically on many fronts, Maine has suffered from her administration. From women’s sports LGBTQ issues, to corrupt “Green” energy economic failures ,Covid policy and taxes, to the appearance of improprieties concerning Medicaid and Somali fraud, Maine is seen nationwide as a corrupt economic and social failure for its people .