Epstein was first arrested in 2006 and convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor. Mr Mitchell (92) has said on multiple occasions that he had no contact with Epstein after his conviction.<\/p>\n
However, the latest tranche of the Epstein files contains numerous emails between assistants to Mr Mitchell and Epstein organising meetings between the men in 2010 and 2013.<\/p>\n
The US-Ireland Alliance scholarship sends future American leaders to Ireland and Northern Ireland for a year of graduate study.<\/p>\n
Founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance, Trina Vargo today said that the board are \u201cextremely proud of the programme\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said the new information regarding the namesake of the scholarship, \u201cin no way diminishes\u201d the achievements of the scholars, or their commitment to retaining the connection between the US and Ireland. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision allows us to focus on our mission to strengthen the ties between the US and the island of Ireland. Given the current state of the relationship, that is more important than ever,\u201d added Ms Vargo.<\/p>\n
She noted that, in the short term, the Alliance will refer to the Scholars as the US-Ireland Alliance Scholars.<\/p>\n
The US Justice Department on Friday published millions of new files related to Epstein.<\/p>\n
In a reflection of the elite circles Epstein inhabited, the documents included mentions of many prominent figures in politics, business and entertainment, including US President Donald Trump himself, who was friends with Epstein years before his crimes came to light. Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.<\/p>\n
Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, said Friday’s batch of documents marked the end of the Trump administration’s planned releases under a law calling for all Epstein-related files to be made public.<\/p>\n
The new cache includes more than three million pages, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, he said.<\/p>\n
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n
Mr Mitchell served as US Senate majority leader from 1989 to 1995 and was later appointed special envoy for Northern Ireland under President Bill Clinton, who has also been linked to Epstein.<\/p>\n
He won plaudits from across the political divide for helping to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
But in court documents released in 2019, Mr Mitchell was accused of having sex with one of Epstein’s victims, now deceased Virginia Giuffre.<\/p>\n
Ms Giuffre claimed she was forced to perform sexual acts with Mr Mitchell while under Epstein’s control.<\/p>\n
Mr Mitchell denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe allegation contained in the released documents is false.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only learned of his actions when they were reported in the media related to his prosecution in Florida. We have had no further contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year it was reported that Mr Mitchell once described his friendship with Epstein as a \u2018blessing\u2019, according to a handwritten letter in what has been described as Epstein’s \u2018birthday book\u2019.<\/p>\n
He, and others named in the massive release of \u2018Epstein files\u2019 in recent days, have always denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
In a statement to BBC News Northern Ireland, Mr Mitchell said the letter was written in 2003.<\/p>\n
It added: “The senator stands by his prior statements regarding Epstein.<\/p>\n
“During the time he knew Epstein, he had no knowledge of Epstein’s actions involving underage girls.<\/p>\n
“He first learned of those actions through published reports of Epstein’s prosecution in Florida. He never had any contact with Mr Epstein again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Epstein was first arrested in 2006 and convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor. Mr Mitchell (92) has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[969,61,60,11111,43],"class_list":["post-276286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}