EDITORIAL: Accountability for Jeffrey Epstein and those with whom he associated will be a long process following the slow release of documents from his estate. Maine’s own George J. Mitchell, namesake of multiple scholarships, buildings and programs, has the opportunity to watch his legacy collapse as his name is revealed in the search. Mitchell most notably served as a Maine state senator from 1980 to 1995, living his life collecting innumerable humanitarian, peace and policy awards such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also spent time raping Virginia Guiffre and other young victims through Epstein’s network.
“Mitchell asked for a blow job and sex and the girl ‘did what she was told,’” released files say.
Reading through every mention of Mitchell in the newly released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files, I sought to understand the University of Maine’s responsibility in renaming UMaine’s George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions and the George J. Mitchell Peace Scholarship program. Some argue that just because names are mentioned in the files, it does not mean that the people are sexual predators, but many are.
In just one document of deposition, eight pages, Mitchell was mentioned 28 times. In this, an unnamed girl is brought to Mitchell’s hotel room in Los Angeles following Epstein’s command. Our former state senator was a repeated pedophile.
“MITCHELL wanted to have sex again so they did… MITCHELL wanted to have sex two more times… The next day MITCHELL has sex with her again… She did not report because she was scared,” reads the record.
When programs remove his name, they are redirecting his legacy. Mitchell will not be remembered as a philanthropist, scholar or senator; he will and should be remembered as a man who needed a power trip over little girls to get off. His name being removed should not be a controversial issue, but how he got to 92-years-old without facing responsibility? That should be a discussion.
In other parts of the files, two names stuck out as connected to Mitchell: Leslie Groff and Peter Mandelson. Groff, Epstein’s executive assistant, kept the billionaire’s appointments, in which Mitchell was scheduled multiple times in New York City, mostly between 2011 and 2013. Mandelson, Former European Commissioner for Trade, who should more aptly be referred to as a ‘bad boy,’ after his friend Ghislaine Maxwell called him as such after he emailed her in 2002, “I am feeling starved of contact.”
In the same email chain in which Mandelson tries to schedule a time, presumably to meet young girls, given the context, with Maxwell, the former diplomat asks if George Mitchell can be involved too. According to other emails over a decade, Mitchell and Mandelson shared many appointments. Etched between appointment markers and deposition, the files write it out clearly: “Maine’s most powerful US Senators Bill Cohen (Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense) and George Mitchell have been credibly named as child sex abusers/traffickers.” Cut ties with monsters before they touch your children.
The connections do not end there, with his business soaked in Epstein’s blood money. Years before he was found hanging in his cell, Epstein considered Mitchell not only a close friend but the world’s greatest negotiator. Mitchell himself said that “[Jeffrey Epstein] has supported some philanthropic projects of mine and organized a fundraiser for me once. I would certainly call him a friend and a supporter.”
Removing his name from programs works to reassess his memory. Context on legacy matters, as time makes us more distanced from the events: seeing a man’s name on a university building insinuates esteem. Putting him in a different context, like a list of Epstein’s accomplices, shows his perverted nature. He led his life in esteem; he can have his death in disgrace.
