Abigail Hebert

Last Friday, the Department of Justice released more than three million files related to the deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The new documents reveal further contact between Epstein and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell ’54 H’83 as well as former Barclays CEO and ex-College trustee James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11, years after Epstein became a convicted sex offender.

This week, the US-Ireland Alliance removed Mitchell’s name from its scholarship program, and on February 5, Mitchell resigned as honorary chair of the Mitchell Institute, a nonprofit that offers scholarships to Maine students entering college. Earlier this week, Queen’s University Belfast also removed Mitchell’s name from its Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.

The newly released files also shed light on communications between Epstein and Jes Staley concerning his daughter Alexa Staley’s ’11 education and career at Bowdoin and beyond.

“A very close friend”

A Waterville native, Mitchell served as a U.S. Senator from Maine for 15 years and Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. As the U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, he played a key role in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which effectively ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Liberty Medal in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 for this work.

Searching Mitchell’s full name brings up nearly 300 results in the Department of Justice’s Epstein Library database.

Newly released documents include emails from 2010 to 2013, sent between assistants of Mitchell and Epstein, that discuss arranging meetings between the two men years after Epstein’s 2008 trial for one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. Epstein pled guilty to both charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2019, Mitchell denied allegations that he had contact with Virginia Giuffre, who said in a 2016 deposition that Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” after court documents were unsealed.

Giuffre stated that Epstein offered her to a group of powerful men for erotic massages and sex, including Mitchell, former Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, Britain’s former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and billionaire Glenn Dubin. All the men said her account was fabricated.

Giuffre died by suicide last year.

“The allegation contained in the released documents is false,” Mitchell said in 2019. “I have never met, spoken with or had any contact with Ms. Giuffre. In my contacts with Mr. Epstein, I never observed or suspected any inappropriate conduct with underage girls. I only learned of his actions when they were reported in the media related to his prosecution in Florida. We have had no further contact.”

However, a 2010 email to Epstein indicates that the men spoke after his 2008 conviction.

“George Mitchell returned your phone call,” a person, whose name has been redacted, wrote to Epstein.

Additionally, a Google Calendar invite from Epstein’s computer lists a November 6, 2013 appointment with Mitchell. An email to Epstein from his assistant also notes a meeting with Mitchell scheduled for November 6.

Mitchell is mentioned further in a 2018 iMessage exchange between Epstein and another person whose name has been redacted, just six months before Epstein’s final arrest in 2019 for sex trafficking.

“Sen George Mitchell a very [sic] close friend when senate majority leader,” Epstein wrote. “Said a budget deal is never done earlier than 11 55 pm [sic] on the eve of a shutdown.”

After the release of the latest batch of files, Mitchell’s spokesperson stated that Mitchell “profoundly regrets ever having known Jeffrey Epstein and condemns, without reservation, the horrific harm Epstein inflicted on so many women.”

Responses from Bowdoin and beyond

“The College is aware of the recently released documents. We are deeply troubled by the harm caused to the many victims. At this time, we are actively reviewing the information that has become available,” Director of Communications Doug Cook wrote in an email to the Orient.

The College officially named the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives in Mitchell’s honor in 2002 when Hawthorne-Longfellow Library was rededicated. The department has a collection featuring items from Mitchell’s life and work, including oral histories, congressional records, speeches and memorabilia.

The US-Ireland Alliance founded the George J. Mitchell Scholarship Program in 2000 in honor of Mitchell’s diplomatic efforts to resolve the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The scholarship sponsors one year of postgraduate study in Ireland or Northern Ireland for twelve American students annually.

The Alliance announced on February 1 that it would be removing Mitchell’s name from the scholarship program, which has been paused since 2024 to grow its endowment. The scholars will now be referred to as the US-Ireland Alliance Scholars.

“We are extremely proud of the program and the Scholars, and this turn of events in no way diminishes their achievements or our commitment to keeping them connected to the island [of Ireland], the Alliance and each other,” Alliance founder and president Trina Vargo stated in a press release.

Mitchell also established the Mitchell Scholarship Program in Maine in 1995 and the Mitchell Institute in 1999. The Scholarship provides $10,000 to 200 graduating seniors across Maine pursuing two or four-year secondary education. The Institute also provides career and personal support to scholarship recipients and has given over $23 million to students since its founding.

The Institute announced in an official statement on February 5 that Mitchell resigned from his position as honorary chair of the organization.

“We also agree that this is an appropriate time to initiate a thoughtful, responsible process to consider a potential name change,” the statement reads.

Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland announced on Monday that it would be removing Mitchell’s name from its Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, as well as taking down a commemorative bust of him on campus.

“While no findings of wrongdoing by Senator Mitchell have been made, the university has concluded that, in light of this material, and mindful of the experiences of victims and survivors, it is no longer appropriate for its institutional spaces and entities to continue to bear his name,” the university said in a statement to the BBC.

The Staley connection

The recent documents also reveal more extensive ties between Epstein and former Bowdoin trustee Jes Staley. Staley resigned as Barclays CEO and from the College’s Board of Trustees in November 2021 amid a probe by the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority.

Last year, Staley failed to overturn a lifetime ban imposed by the British financial regulator, during which he admitted to having consensual sex with a member of Epstein’s staff. According to a new report in The Guardian released on Thursday, unsealed documents allege that Staley had nonconsensual sexual relations with a woman while receiving a massage.

While Staley’s legal battles have focused on his banking conduct, he also used his relationship with Epstein to assist his daughter, Alexa Staley ’11, with her academic career. Emails reveal that Epstein acted as an advisor to Staley’s daughter, leveraging his network of top academics on her behalf.

In December 2009, a few months after Epstein was released from prison, he obtained an invitation to a physics conference for Alexa Staley to attend through Harvard University professor Lisa Randall. In the partially redacted email chain, Randall appears to ask about the connection, where Epstein replied, “HER FATHER IS A CLOSE FRIEND BANKER JPM.”

The Harvard Crimson has reported that Randall had maintained years of contact with Epstein, including a brief visit to his island in 2014.

A few weeks later, Jes Staley thanked Epstein for getting a “junior from Bowdoin into a conference with the top physicists in the world.”

During Alexa Staley’s time at the College, her father and Epstein strategized regularly regarding her graduate school applications. By late 2010, the two men were discussing physics graduate programs. Alexa Staley’s GRE test scores, resume and letters of recommendation written by a Bowdoin professor were found in the released files.

In 2023, Bloomberg reported that Epstein was also in contact with Nobel laureate and Columbia professor Richard Axel in assisting Alexa Staley’s admission to Columbia University’s graduate physics program. While discussing her chances of admission, Epstein reassured her father that “she can sit with Richard Axel when I get back, he won the Nobel prize … he has guaranteed me.”

Alexa Staley graduated from Columbia University with a doctorate in physics in 2015. Emails indicate Epstein was invited to her graduation. She followed up with an email thanking him for his help.

Alexa Staley’s last email to Epstein was on November 28, 2018, the same day the Miami Herald published its blockbuster investigation into Epstein’s plea deal. Writing to Epstein to update him on her post-graduate life in San Francisco, Alexa noted she was working as an engineer at Rigetti Computing.

“I know it’s been forever. I hope you are well,” she wrote. “I was just in st barths [sic] with the family. Everyone is doing well.”

According to The Times, Jes Staley was visibly emotional when a British court questioned Epstein’s involvement in Alexa Staley’s academic career, insisting that her achievements were garnered on merit. In addition, he denied that his daughter was used as a “vehicle of communication,” maintaining that all contact with Epstein was severed prior to joining Barclays.

Alexa Staley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.