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Posted on 09/29/2026 10:44:34 AM PDT by billorites
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The University of Maine System (UMS) Board of Trustees voted Monday to accept a task force's recommendation to remove former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell's name from a building and a scholarship.
On Jan. 30, the Department of Justice released millions of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and Mitchell's name appears more than 300 times in those files. In 2019, Mitchell was mentioned as an associate of Epstein's in testimony from one of the financier's victims. Mitchell, however, was never directly linked to child sex abuse. Advertisement
A spokesperson for Mitchell said the former senator denies having any knowledge of Epstein engaging in illegal or inappropriate conduct with underage girls.
In February, UMS Chancellor Dannel Malloy and University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Munday established a task force to review and make recommendations about naming associated with Mitchell, including the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions and the George J. Mitchell Peace Scholarship.
The task force acknowledged Mitchell's lengthy and distinguished record of public service and impact, but ultimately determined: "While no findings of wrongdoing by Senator Mitchell have been made, in light of the material that has recently been made public by the U.S. Department of Justice, and mindful of the experiences of victims and survivors, the task force concludes that continued use of Senator Mitchell's name would compromise the public trust and reflect adversely upon the university and its reputation."
UMS chief external and governmental affairs officer Samantha Warren said that nearly three-quarters of people who responded to a university and public comment solicitation from the task force asked for Mitchell's name to be removed from the center and scholarship.
Warren said that with the Board of Trustees' vote, the University of Maine Center for Sustainability Solutions will be the temporary new name of the research and engagement center at the flagship campus in Orono. In addition, the prestigious award that supports student exchange between Maine's public universities and Ireland is being renamed the University of Maine Peace Scholarship.
While the name changes are effective immediately, Warren said that updating websites, materials and signage — including on Norman Smith Hall, where the Center for Sustainability Solutions is located — will take several months.
Mitchell, 93, represented Maine in the U.S. Senate from May 1980 to January 1995, serving as Senate Majority Leader for his final six years. The Waterville native then served as U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland under President Bill Clinton until January 2001, and mediated the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Mitchell also served as U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East under President Barack Obama from January 2009 to May 2011.
In early February, Mitchell resigned from his role as honorary chair of the Mitchell Institute. Around that time, the U.S.-Ireland Alliance voted to remove Mitchell's name from its scholarship program, and Queen's University in Northern Ireland removed a bust of Mitchell from its Belfast campus and removed his name from the university's research center. Fallout from former Sen. Mitchell's name appearing in Epstein files Mitchell Institute faces fallout from former Maine senator's name appearing in Epstein files
Mitchell's official portrait was removed from the walls of the Maine State House on Feb. 27. The Maine Senate President's Office told Maine's Total Coverage that the Epstein files were a factor in the decision to remove the portrait. The Mitchell portrait was unveiled in January 2014 in the Hall of Flags, alongside portraits of other Mainers, including former Sens. Margaret Chase and Edmund Muskie.
On March 9, the Waterville School Board voted to remove Mitchell's name from an elementary school in the city. The school has gone back to its original name of Brookside Elementary.
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Stupid!
Throwing out the baby with the bathwater!!
What we don’t know is who may have been blackmailing Senator Mitchell all those years—and exactly how and when that affected public policy.
The Democrats love to talk about “transparency”.
Our real history is a total black box.
Nobody knows what is in it.
All those words, and not a whiff of the fact that he was a leading member of the Democratic Party...
Nice going, propaganda Media.
This is getting a little ridiculous. Just because someone's name is mentioned in Epstein's files doesn't mean they were aware of, much less involved in, any of Epstein's pedo-criminal activity. Maybe provide the context of those 300 mentions, and this might make more sense.
By the summer of 2006 the cops were on to Epstein. And in July of that year he was arrested.
Anyone who had any dealings with him after that time deserves no sympathy.
So if Mitchell had contacts with Epstein after that time, Mitchell is truly garbage. Otherwise, it’s an unfair smear.
Probably was just overlooked........
Not even a mention that he was one of highest ranking Democrats for years. The bias is exhausting.
As if we need more proof that Trump had nothing to do with Epstein.
Now if only WV would remove Sen. Robert KKK Byrd from everything in the state that would be great.
LOL!
The greasy old kiddie-diddler is still alive, so he gets to watch his filthy pervert name dragged through the Epstein mud. 😂😂🤣🤣
And his wife Heather gets to watch it all.
I bet this will piss off ol’George Michell to no end ... they could have at least waited until he died ...
He’s still alive?.................
Another Democrat.
Interesting article here:
Key quote:
“allegation by Virginia Giuffre in 2019 that she had been forced to have sex with Mitchell in the 1990s”
If the allegation is correct then Mitchell knew exactly what Epstein was about—from day one.
See post 15.
Obviously an allegation is not proof—but it is a data point.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer a-hole. Mitchell was a bare-knuckles political brawler when he was in office who took every opportunity for partisan advantage. Its fitting that he is being destroyed by his own constituency.
“While no findings of wrongdoing by Senator Mitchell have been made, the task force concludes that continued use of Senator Mitchell’s name would compromise the public trust and reflect adversely upon the university and its reputation.”
Makes zero sense.
I remember Mitchell being very condescending and rude to Ollie North during Iran/Contra hearings. He was and is a pompous and nasty old coot; great friend of the felon sex pervert Epstein who traveled often with the scumbo and remained his close friend after Epstein was convicted of sex with children. Before she committed suicide, Virginia Guiffre told the FBI she was forced to have sex with Mitchell but the investigation of her claim was shut down by the Obama Administration. There is plenty more on this odious man and his relationship with Epstein than this article reports; I’m just glad that he lived long enough to see his evil exposed and his phony reputation in tatters.
> If the allegation is correct… <
Good catch. I assumed Mitchell was just socializing with Epstein. But I guess it could have gone much deeper. If so, that 2006 cutoff date wouldn’t mean much.
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