Former US senator George Mitchell reiterates Epstein denials as university severs ties
George Mitchell has never been charged with any wrongdoing and has repeatedly stated he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes before his guilty plea in 2008. File photo
Former US senator George Mitchell has reiterated denials that he was involved in or aware of any criminal activity by Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes after the US-Ireland Alliance announced the removal of Mr Mitchell’s name from its prestigious scholarship programme. The former US Senator was one of the main architects of the Good Friday Agreement and a widely respected diplomat.
In response to an email from the , a spokesman for Mr Mitchell said: “Senator Mitchell reiterates unequivocally that he never met, spoke with, or had any contact of any kind with Ms [Virginia] Giuffre or with any underage women.”
Mr Mitchell’s name is referenced multiple times in the release of almost 3 million files related to Epstein’s underage sex-trafficking network.
On Sunday, the US-Ireland Alliance issued a statement announcing its board of directors had "unanimously agreed that its George J Mitchell Scholarship programme should no longer bear the former Senator’s name".
On Monday, Queen’s University Belfast followed suit, announcing it would sever ties with Mr Mitchell. The university said it was removing his name from its Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and also removing a commemorative bust of the former diplomat from its campus.
Mr Mitchell's name first surfaced in connection with Epstein in 2019 when Virginia Giuffre alleged he was one of the men she was trafficked to have sex with. In the files that were released on Friday, six paragraphs of an eight-page statement to the FBI in 2020 make similar claims.
Mr Mitchell has never been charged with any wrongdoing and has repeatedly stated he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes before his guilty plea in 2008. He also stated that he had no further contact with him following the completion of his 13-month prison sentence in August 2009.
However, files released last Friday include emails and messages that suggest Mr Mitchell and Epstein were in contact, at least through intermediaries, and a series of exchanges indicate that a meeting between the two was arranged for November 6, 2013. There is no indication in the released files that the meeting ever took place.
Sources close to Mr Mitchell indicated that, while Epstein’s staff may have reached out to him in the 13-year period between his conviction and death with various invitations, that he declined or deflected them in every instance.
The statement from Mr Mitchell’s spokesman to the adds: "In the recently released documents, an allegation involving Senator Mitchell by Ms Virginia Giuffre is repeated. It was first made public in 2020 and denied at the time. That allegation is based on a case of mistaken identity.
"In 2021, Ms. Giuffre supplied a photograph to magazine, which incorrectly captioned it as depicting Senator Mitchell standing behind Jeffrey Epstein. The individual in the photograph was not Senator Mitchell. The publisher acknowledged the incorrect caption and removed it.
"At no time did Senator Mitchell observe, suspect, or have any knowledge of Epstein engaging in illegal or inappropriate conduct with underage women.
"He learned of Epstein’s criminal activity only through media reports related to Epstein’s Florida prosecution and declined or deflected the few invitations to events extended by Epstein’s office in the years that followed.
"Senator Mitchell profoundly regrets ever having known Jeffrey Epstein and condemns, without reservation, the horrific harm Epstein inflicted on so many women.”
The Mitchell Scholarship programme was founded in 1998 by Trina Vargo, a former foreign policy adviser to Ted Kennedy, who had pressured former US president Bill Clinton to become involved in resolving the 30-year conflict that had claimed thousands of lives.
The exhaustive negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement where chaired by Mitchell, delivering a rare foreign policy triumph for the US.
Mr Mitchell had no executive involvement with the Mitchell Scholars programme nor was he involved in the selection of participants.
Despite its modest funding, the scholarship named for him became an extremely competitive programme, with several participants turning down Rhodes Scholarship offers in favour of becoming a Mitchell Scholar. The programme’s intake process is currently paused because of funding issues.
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