Though former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, has denied any connection to Jeffrey Epstein’s well-publicized sexual exploits, he’s now been banished by a prestigious scholarship program bearing his name.
The U.S.-Ireland Alliance said it’s removed Mitchell’s name from its program.
Mitchell was sidelined Friday after the the Senate ex-majority leader’s name surfaced in the latest release of Epstein files by the U.S. Justice Department.
In a statement, the alliance said: “The board of directors of the U.S.-Ireland Alliance has unanimously agreed that its George J. Michell Scholarship program should no longer bear the former senator’s name.”
Alliance officials said removing Mitchell’s name “allows us to focus on our mission to strengthen the ties between the U.S. and Ireland.”
A woman has said under oath in a 2016 deposition that Epstein kept her as a sex slave, offering her “services” to a group of powerful politicians, including Mitchell, who for a half-century has been one of Maine’s most-prominent public personalities.
The former federal judge and U.S. senator has insisted that the allegation was false.
“I have never met, spoken with or had any contact” with the alleged victim, he said two years ago.
The BBC reported last year that Mitchell, who played a critical role in Northern Ireland’s peace process, once spoke of his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein as a “blessing.”
The description was reportedly contained in a handwritten letter penned by Mitchell in what has been described as Epstein’s 50th “birthday book.”
Mitchell has said the letter was written several years before Epstein’s prosecution.
In a 2003 Vanity Fair profile, Mitchell had identified Epstein as a supporter of his philanthropic projects.
The scholarship program that bore Mitchell’s name sends U.S. students to Ireland and Northern Ireland for graduate work.
The Mitchell Scholarship was set up by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance to honor Mitchell and has supported hundreds of American students over the years.
It has not selected new scholars since 2024 due to funding issues.
Mitchell was in the senate from 1980 to 1995, and served there as majority leader from 1989 to 1995.
After leaving the senate, he played a leading role in negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East.
Mitchell was appointed U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland by President Clinton and later special envoy for Middle East peace by President Obama.
Now 92, Mitchell was born in Waterville.
He was the Democrat nominee for governor in 1974 but lost in an upset to James Longley, an “independent.”
Mitchell was named in 1979 to the federal bench by President Carter.
He was appointed to the senate in 1980 by Gov. Joseph Brennan – the same guy he defeated in the 1974 Democrat gubernatorial primary – when Edmund Muskie resigned to become U.S. secretary of state.
