University System Removes George Mitchell's Name Over Epstein Ties

The University of Maine System's Board of Trustees has voted to remove the name of former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell from a building and a scholarship fund due to his connections with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The board approved the decision 9-5 on Monday, with one abstention. The Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions on the University of Maine's Orono campus and the George J. Mitchell Peace Scholarship will be renamed.

Mitchell, 93, is mentioned over 300 times in documents related to the Epstein case that were released by the Department of Justice. Records indicate that as late as 2013, Mitchell was meeting with Epstein, five years after Epstein accepted a plea deal on charges including the solicitation of prostitution involving a minor.

Michell has consistently denied any personal wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein's abuse of young girls.

In February, UMaine officials formed a task force to examine whether Mitchell's name should be removed from university property. The task force concluded that while no findings of wrongdoing by Mitchell have been made, the public release of information and consideration for victims and survivors meant that continuing to use his name would compromise public trust and negatively impact the university's reputation.

Mitchell served in the U.S. Senate from 1980 until his retirement in 1995. He was later appointed as President Bill Clinton's special envoy for Northern Ireland, where he played a key role in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. In 2006, he led an investigation into steroid use in Major League Baseball, known as the Mitchell Report, which identified numerous players for alleged drug use and led to enhanced drug testing and penalties in the sport.